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Estimating Flexible Distributions of Ideal-Points with External Analysis of Preferences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Wagner A. Kamakura
Wagner A. Kamakura*
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University
*
Request for reprints should be sent to Wagner A. Kamakura, Vanderbilt University, 401 21st Avenue South, Nashville, Tennessee 37203.
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Abstract

Ideal-points are widely used to model choices when preferences are single-peaked. Ideal-point choice models have been typically estimated at the individual-level, or have been based on the assumption that ideal-points are normally distributed over the population of choice makers. We propose two probabilistic ideal-point choice models for the external analysis of preferences that allow for more flexible multimodal distributions of ideal-points, thus acknowledging the existence of subpopulations with distinct preferences. The first model extends the ideal-point probit model for heterogeneous preferences to accommodate a mixture of multivariate normal distributions of ideal-points. The second model assumes that ideal-points are uniformly distributed within finite ranges of the attribute space, leading to a more simplistic formulation and a more flexible distribution. The two models are applied to simulated and actual choice data, and compared to the ideal-point probit model.

Keywords

choice modelsmultinomial probit
Type
Original Paper
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 56 , Issue 3 , September 1991 , pp. 419 - 431
Copyright
Copyright © 1991 The Psychometric Society

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Footnotes

This research was funded by the Dean's Fund for Faculty Research of the Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University.

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