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Discrete Choice and Rational Inattention: a General Equivalence Result

Mogens Fosgerau, Emerson Melo, Andre de Palma, Matthew Shum

arXiv 26 Sep 2017 · Econometrics · publishedInternational Economic Review (2020) · 74 citations (OpenAlex)

arXiv:1709.09117 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

This paper establishes a general equivalence between discrete choice and rational inattention models. Matejka and McKay (2015, AER) showed that when information costs are modelled using the Shannon entropy function, the resulting choice probabilities in the rational inattention model take the multinomial logit form. By exploiting convex-analytic properties of the discrete choice model, we show that when information costs are modelled using a class of generalized entropy functions, the choice probabilities in any rational inattention model are observationally equivalent to some additive random utility discrete choice model and vice versa. Thus any additive random utility model can be given an interpretation in terms of boundedly rational behavior. This includes empirically relevant specifications such as the probit and nested logit models.

Citation extraction

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Most heavily cited references

The works this paper leans on most, across its whole bibliography — not restricted to papers in our corpus. Ranked by composite intensity, which combines how often a work is mentioned, how many sections mention it, and how much of that falls in the main text rather than the appendix.

ReferenceIntensityMentionsSectionsMain text
1B. Hé bert and M. Woodford (2016) Rational Inattention with Sequential Information Sampling0.64422100%
2D. McFadden (1978) Modelling the choice of residential location0.58531100%
3T. Rockafellar (1970) Convex Analysis0.5114225%
4D. McFadden (1981) Econometric Models of Probabilistic Choice0.51121100%
5S. Anderson, A. de Palma, and J. Thisse (1992) Discrete Choice Theory of Product Differentiation self0.40511100%
6S. Berry, J. Levinsohn, and A. Pakes (1995) Automobile Prices in Market Equilibrium0.40511100%
7A. Caplin, M. Dean, and J. Leahy (2016) Rational Inattention, Optimal consideration sets and stochastic choice0.40511100%
8K. Chiong, A. Galichon, and M. Shum (2016) Duality in Dynamic Discrete Choice Models self0.40511100%
9J. Fox, K. Kim, S. Ryan, and P. Bajari (2012) The random coefficients logit model is identified0.40511100%
10D. Fudenberg, R. Iijima, and T. Strzalecki (2015) Stochastic Choice and Revealed Perturbed Utility0.40511100%

Showing the top 10 of 19 scored citations.

Cited by, within the corpus

arXiv econ.EM papers that cite this one, ranked by how heavily they lean on it.

Citing paperIntensityMentionsSections
1Identification of a class of index models: A topological approach0.51121
2An Empirical Framework for Discrete Games with Costly Information Acquisition0.51121
3ResLogit: A residual neural network logit model for data-driven choice modelling0.40511
4A recursive logit model with choice aversion and its application to transportation networks (Forthcoming at Transportation Research Part B: Methodological)0.40511
5Local Identification in Instrumental Variable Multivariate Quantile Regression Models0.40511
6Exogenous Consideration and Extended Random Utility0.40511