[Limdep Nlogit List] Help with citation about random selection model

[Christian A. Vossler]

Dear Javier,

I know that this has been done in the context of nonmarket valuation -- the 
"randomized response" technique.

Berrens, R., A. Bohara, and J. Kerkvliet. 1997 "A Randomized Response 
Approach to Dichotomous Choice Contingent Valuation." American Journal of 
Agricultural Economics 79(1):252-266.

I don't remember exactly, but I believe respondents where directed (based on 
their social security number) to either answer a (yes/no) question about 
whether their mom has a birthday in May or whether they are willing to pay 
(yes/no) $X for a specified public good. The researcher did not have the 
social security number and so there is no way of telling which question was 
answered. A maximum likelihood approach was used to model responses.

I hope this helps.

--------------------------------------
Christian A. Vossler
Assistant Professor
Department of Economics
534 Stokely Management Center
The University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 37996-0550

Phone: 865-974-1699
Fax: 865-974-4601
E-mail: cvossler at utk.edu
Web Page: http://econ.bus.utk.edu/Vossler/vossler.htm




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "GIMENO Javier" <Javier.GIMENO at insead.edu>
To: <limdep at limdep.itls.usyd.edu.au>
Sent: Saturday, June 16, 2007 9:34 AM
Subject: [Limdep Nlogit List] Help with citation about random selection 
model


Dear LIMDEPers,

I recall reading -- several years ago -- about a survey technique used
for eliciting truthful responses about private behaviors (I don't recall
if it was drug use, sexual behavior, or something like that).

The idea was that the respondent would draw a random binary process
(e.g, coin toss, dice, etc), and depending on the result it would either
respond truthfully to the question, or would enter some randomly
generated (but sensible) answer. The idea was that it would be
impossible to infer back from the individual answer whether it was true
or randomly generated. Yet, because the probabilities of the random
processes were pre-determined, they would add a known parameter shift in
the likelihood function, and therefore the coefficients of a discrete
response model could be estimated through a ML process. That's my
recollection, but memory is imperfect and I probably got some details
wrong.

Does anyone recall seeing a paper using an econometric technique like
this? Essentially it is a selection model where the selection criteria
is exogeneous but unobserved. I've been looking for a reference, but my
memory and my library fail me. I would like to show evidence that this
model has been used before.

My objective is to use this to allow me to merge two datasets, one of
which has confidentiality concerns. By applying a random filter to the
confidential data, it would be impossible to infer back whether the
answer is the right one for a particular firm, but I would still be able
to do meaningful analysis with this variable.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Javier

______________________________
Javier Gimeno
Professor of Strategy
INSEAD
Boulevard de Constance
77305 Fontainebleau Cedex
FRANCE
Tel: (+33) 16072 4513
email: javier.gimeno at insead.edu <mailto:javier.gimeno at insead.edu>

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