Обзор структурных дискретно-непрерывных моделей спроса, учитывающих множественный выбор потребителя

Экономический анализ: теория и практика. 2015. № 39. С. 56–66.

Кочкина Н. А.

Importance An individual is often observed choosing several options from the available set of alternatives. The amount of the alternatives chosen can be different from one unit. For example, an individual came to buy yogurt and is choosing which brands of yogurt to purchase. After that he buys several packages of each chosen brand. Another wide-spread situation is portfolio investment problem, when individual is solving which security papers to buy and which sum of money he is ready to spend on a purchase of each security paper. Discrete choice theory, which is widely used for modeling demand function, can’t be applied in such cases as the main assumption of the theory (individual buys one unit of one type of alternative in one exact choice situation) is violated. However, the necessity to model and estimate demand function continues to be relevant. As such, since 2000 structural discrete-continuous demand models describing such choice situations have been developing dynamically.

Objectives The objectives of the work are the following: analysis of existing structural discrete-continuous demand models which allow to model multiple choice of an individual, comparison of different models and revealing of the topical directions for future research.

Conclusions A common approach to modeling multiple choice situations is given in the article: consumer’s problem is formalized. A critical analysis of the models is held. Existing utility function specification are considered, the main advantages and disadvantages of different specifications are outlined.

Two main directions for future researches are presented.  The first one is construction of flexible utility function specifications, which model both substation and complementarity effects. The second one is design of algorithms which allow to estimate such models over a short period of time.

Keywords: структурный подход, функция полезности, utility function, множественный выбор, structural approach, multiple choice, discrete-continuous demand models, consumer’s problem, дискретно-непрерывные модели спроса, задача оптимального выбора потребителя

Publication based on the results of: Эмпирическая оценка спроса (2015)