[Limdep Nlogit List] MNL Dummy Variable issues

contactemt contactemt at bigfoot.com
Fri Oct 13 20:44:52 EST 2006


Hi,

I have understood what ASC are now and realise they are not applicable to my 
model :)

My model deals with generic choices - Greene uses the term "unlabeled" - 
with the further complication that the choice set size can vary. I have 
looked at his book and he describes the problem with unlabeled and ASC's in 
Appendix 10A.

Coincidentally, in his example he uses gender as a non varying parameter 
(within sets) as I did.
However, to get around the lack of ASC's he uses a pre defined utility model 
and combines it with one of the utility variables. Why he chooses a 
particular variable I don't know - and what is TTgen anyway (if you have the 
book).

My variables are purely measured items - I do not wish to apply utility 
constraints to them. I want the data to describe the model. Any utility 
constructs I place on the model would be arbitrary. So is there another 
approach I can use?

But if not, say I do try to use interactions to include categories - or 
SDC's as he calls them:

How should I choose the variable(s) to interact with?
Should I choose 1 or many?
Should I only include the variable interaction term or should I include it 
by itself also - what would be the point as they would be collinear wouldn't 
they?
How should I encode gender?
If I choose 1,0 then half the interactions would be 0.
If I choose 1,-1 will NLOGIT be able to fit the =ve and -ve values of the 
interacting term(s) OK?

If I have more categories/dummy variables to add to the model, do I need a 
set of interactions for each one or can I combine them?

I have searched and not been able to find any examples of the type of 
unlabeled model I wish to run, and I'm afraid I don't have the ability to 
extrapolate from the exclusively "labeled" models out there.

Any further help appreciated.



> You get this because the default in NLOGIT is to fit alternative specific
> constants (when you use the ONE term) and you have 30 alternatives in the 
> choice
> set.  Add to that the interaction between gender you requested in RHS2 and 
> your
> one generic attribute (pRF1) you get 59 parameters.  Several of these 
> parameters
> are fixed which means you have very low frequencies for them or one level 
> of
> gender never choice that specific alternative.
>
> Perhaps you should read about choice modeling in Greene's book Applied 
> Choice
> Analysis.  He discusses all these issues and the defaults of NLOGIT.
>
> Tom
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: limdep-bounces at limdep.itls.usyd.edu.au
> [mailto:limdep-bounces at limdep.itls.usyd.edu.au] On Behalf Of contactemt
> Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2006 1:29 PM
> To: Limdep and Nlogit Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [Limdep Nlogit List] MNL Dummy Variable issues
>
> Thanks,
>
> After a quick look it seems the Limdep rh2 variable is used for this.
> So I have:
>
> NLOGIT ; Lhs = CHOICE, SETSIZE
>    ; Rhs = v
>   ; Rh2 = One, GENDER
>   ; Prob = probs $
>
>
> Incidentally, (I havent read through the issues but)
> I run a very simple (one attribute)
>
> NLOGIT ; Lhs = CHOICE, SETSIZE
>    ; Rhs = pRF1
>   ; Rh2 = One, GENDER
>    ; Prob = probs $
>
>
> as a test and get 59 parameters. Why is this?
>
> Sorry if a stupid Q.
> +
> | Discrete choice (multinomial logit) model   |
> | Maximum Likelihood Estimates                |
> | Model estimated: Oct 12, 2006 at 06:14:54PM.|
> | Dependent variable               Choice     |
> | Weighting variable                 None     |
> | Number of observations             1704     |
> | Iterations completed                 18     |
> | Log likelihood function       -.3005320E-08 |
> | R2=1-LogL/LogL*  Log-L fncn  R-sqrd  RsqAdj |
> | No coefficients  -5795.6403 1.00000 1.00000 |
> | Constants only.  Must be computed directly. |
> |                  Use NLOGIT ;...; RHS=ONE $ |
> | Response data are given as ind. choice.     |
> | Number of obs.=  1704, skipped   0 bad obs. |
> +---------------------------------------------+
>
>
> |+---------+--------------+----------------+--------+---------+
> |Variable | Coefficient  | Standard Error |b/St.Er.|P[|Z|>z] |
> +---------+--------------+----------------+--------+---------+
> PRF1       .28562667     1100.58000      .000   .9998
> A_Alt.1       121.889077   ......(Fixed Parameter).......
> AltxHCA1     -86.8291397     47685.8780     -.002   .9985
> A_Alt.2      -17.6981970     50283.9113      .000   .9997
> AltxHCA2      11.4289719     38053.7076      .000   .9998
> A_Alt.3      -15.6341676     28185.0248     -.001   .9996
> AltxHCA3      9.45993004     23720.4712      .000   .9997
> A_Alt.4      -14.0208822     18985.8265     -.001   .9994
> AltxHCA4      7.93083927     14502.9551      .001   .9996
> A_Alt.5      -13.7822969   ......(Fixed Parameter).......
> AltxHCA5      7.88816799   ......(Fixed Parameter).......
> A_Alt.6      -12.9643251   ......(Fixed Parameter).......
> AltxHCA6      7.03157581     431.216215      .016   .9870
> A_Alt.7      -11.5834031     2324.85755     -.005   .9960
> AltxHCA7      5.80855146     1886.76721      .003   .9975
> A_Alt.8      -9.82066678   ......(Fixed Parameter).......
> AltxHCA8      4.04330766     271.466257      .015   .9881
> A_Alt.9      -8.15221444     48.3176779     -.169   .8660
> AltxHCA9      2.65183332     31.0102930      .086   .9319
> A_Alt.10     -6.50502468     24.7267852     -.263   .7925
> AltxHCA*      7.33600806      .02888315   253.989   .0000
> A_Alt.11     -5.06016269   ......(Fixed Parameter).......
> AltxHCA*      7.33600806      .02888315   253.989   .0000
> A_Alt.12     -4.04467058      .00742264  -544.910   .0000
> AltxHCA*      7.33600806      .02888315   253.989   .0000
> A_Alt.13     -3.22120224   ......(Fixed Parameter).......
> AltxHCA*      7.33600806      .02888315   253.989   .0000
> A_Alt.14     -2.70256143    .202507D-04  ********   .0000
> AltxHCA*      7.33600806      .02888315   253.989   .0000
> A_Alt.15     -2.37109609    .211547D-04  ********   .0000
> AltxHCA*      7.33600806      .02888315   253.989   .0000
> A_Alt.16     -2.16550807   ......(Fixed Parameter).......
> AltxHCA*      7.33600806      .02888315   253.989   .0000
> A_Alt.17     -2.01944461   ......(Fixed Parameter).......
> AltxHCA*      7.33600806      .02888315   253.989   .0000
> A_Alt.18     -1.97037254    .217681D-04  ********   .0000
> AltxHCA*      7.33600806      .02888315   253.989   .0000
> A_Alt.19     -1.98283571    .242113D-04  ********   .0000
> AltxHCA*      7.33600806      .02888315   253.989   .0000
> A_Alt.20     -2.04980440   ......(Fixed Parameter).......
> AltxHCA*      7.33600806      .02888315   253.989   .0000
> A_Alt.21     -2.13493369    .113446D-04  ********   .0000
> AltxHCA*      7.33600806      .02888315   253.989   .0000
> A_Alt.22     -2.14340813    .125961D-04  ********   .0000
> AltxHCA*      7.33600806      .02888315   253.989   .0000
> A_Alt.23     -2.14440660   ......(Fixed Parameter).......
> AltxHCA*      7.33600806      .02888315   253.989   .0000
> A_Alt.24     -2.18364464   ......(Fixed Parameter).......
> AltxHCA*      7.33600806      .02888315   253.989   .0000
> A_Alt.25     -2.23302643    .174142D-04  ********   .0000
> AltxHCA*      7.33600806      .02888315   253.989   .0000
> A_Alt.26     -2.26795137   ......(Fixed Parameter).......
> AltxHCA*      7.33600806      .02888315   253.989   .0000
> A_Alt.27     -2.29960229   ......(Fixed Parameter).......
> AltxHCA*      7.33600806      .02888315   253.989   .0000
> A_Alt.28     -2.29869412    .153029D-04  ********   .0000
> AltxHCA*      7.33600806      .02888315   253.989   .0000
> A_Alt.29     -2.30517803    .174283D-04  ********   .0000
> AltxHCA*      7.33600806      .02888315   253.989   .0000
>
>
>
>>
>  That is exactly right: anything constant across the choice set
> needs to be put in as an interaction effect, via multiplying
> with with non-constant quantities. That way, you are in effect
> estimating two coefficients -- assuming you are assessing the effect
> of a dummy variable -- for each of those other (non-contant)
> quantities. To keep with your original example, you'd be getting a
> set of "male coefficients" and "female coefficients" for each of the
> non-constant variables with which you're interacting. Note that this
> would only be estimated *across* choice sets, since each individual
> is, presumably, constant in gender, so the gender "variable" never
> varies within any one choice set. [You should be careful that you
> don't have a small proportion of either zeros or ones in your dummy
> variable, or you may wind up not having enough cases to estimate the
> gender difference in coefficients. You might also consider some form
> of hierarchical modeling, particularly hierarchical Bayes.]
>
>  FF
>
>  Quoting "Thomas C. Eagle" <teagle at tceagle.com>:
>
>> You have to interact the category variables with alternative
> specific
>> constants,
>> much like you do with socio-demographic effects.
>>
>> Tom
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>
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