Nonparametric Welfare Analysis for Discrete Choice
研究了在偏好存在未观测异质性时，如何利用个体层面数据非参数地测量离散商品价格变化带来的等价变差或补偿变差，并给出了简单易算的闭式表达式。
We consider empirical measurement of equivalent/compensating variation resulting from price-change of a discrete good using individual-level data, when there is unobserved heterogeneity in preferences.We show that for binary and unordered multinomial choice, the marginal distributions of EV/CV can be expressed as simple closed-form functionals of conditional choice-probabilities under essentially unrestricted preference-distributions.These results hold even when the distribution/dimension of unobserved heterogeneity are neither known nor identi-…ed and utilities are neither quasi-linear nor parametrically speci…ed.The welfare distributions take simple forms which are easy to compute in applications.In particular, average EV for a price-rise equals the change in average Marshallian consumer-surplus and is smaller than average CV for a normal good.These nonparametric point-identi…cation results fail for ordered choice if the unit-price is identical for all alternatives, thereby providing a connection to Hausman-Newey's (2014) partial identi…cation results for the limiting case of continuous choice.