Random-Coefficients Logit Demand Estimation with Zero-Valued Market Shares

45 Pages Posted: 4 Mar 2020 Last revised: 21 Apr 2020

See all articles by Jean-Pierre Dubé

Jean-Pierre Dubé

University of Chicago - Booth School of Business; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Marketing Science Institute (MSI)

Ali Hortaçsu

University of Chicago; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Joonhwi Joo

University of Texas at Dallas - Naveen Jindal School of Management

Multiple version iconThere are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: February 29, 2020

Abstract

Although typically overlooked, many purchase datasets exhibit a high incidence of products with zero sales. We propose a new estimator for the Random-Coefficients Logit demand system for purchase datasets with zero-valued market shares. The identification of the demand parameters is based on a pairwise-differencing approach that constructs moment conditions based on differences in demand between pairs of products. The corresponding estimator corrects nonparametrically for the potential selection of the incidence of zeros on unobserved aspects of demand. The estimator also corrects for the potential endogeneity of marketing variables both in demand and in the selection propensities. Monte Carlo simulations show that our proposed estimator provides reliable small-sample inference both with and without selection-on-unobservables. In an empirical case study, the proposed estimator not only generates different demand estimates than approaches that ignore selection in the incidence of zero shares, it also generates better out-of-sample fit of observed retail contribution margins.

JEL Classification: D12, L00, L66, L81, M3

Suggested Citation

Dube, Jean-Pierre H. and Hortaçsu, Ali and Joo, Joonhwi, Random-Coefficients Logit Demand Estimation with Zero-Valued Market Shares (February 29, 2020). University of Chicago, Becker Friedman Institute for Economics Working Paper No. 2020-13, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3547712 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3547712

Jean-Pierre H. Dube

University of Chicago - Booth School of Business ( email )

5807 South Woodlawn Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637
United States

HOME PAGE: http://gsb.uchicago.edu/fac/jean-pierre.dube

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) ( email )

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Cambridge, MA 02138
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Marketing Science Institute (MSI) ( email )

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Cambridge, MA 02138-5396
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Ali Hortaçsu (Contact Author)

University of Chicago ( email )

1101 East 58th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
United States

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Joonhwi Joo

University of Texas at Dallas - Naveen Jindal School of Management ( email )

P.O. Box 830688
Richardson, TX TX 75083-0688
United States
75080 (Fax)

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