arXiv subjects

Romuald Meango

Publications and source records attributed to Romuald Meango.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Combining stated and revealed preferences

Can stated preferences inform counterfactual analyses of actual choice? This research proposes a novel approach to researchers who have access to both stated choices in hypothetical scenarios and actual choices, matched or unmatched. The key idea is to use stated choices to identify the distribution of individual unobserved heterogeneity. If this unobserved heterogeneity is the source of endogeneity, the researcher can correct for its influence in a demand function estimation using actual choices and recover causal effects. Bounds on causal effects are derived in the case, where stated choice and actual choices are observed in unmatched data sets. These data combination bounds are of independent interest. We derive bootstrap inference for the bounds and show its good performance in a simulation experiment.

econ.EM↗

arXiv2025

Is the distribution of resolvable uncertainty Type I extreme value? A Test for Random Coefficient Models using Choice Probabilities

Stated choice probabilities are increasingly used in conjunction with the random-coefficient model (RCM) to describe individual preferences. They allow survey respondents to express uncertainty about the future or the incompleteness of a hypothetical scenario: the resolvable uncertainty. Parametric assumptions such as a Type I extreme value (EV1) distribution are almost always imposed on this uncertainty to identify and estimate the associated RCM. This paper proposes the first test for these parametric assumptions, based on a nonparametric identification result for the population distribution of the interquantile range of the resolvable uncertainty. In all four empirical applications considered, the test finds strong evidence against the EV1 assumption.

econ.GN↗

arXiv2023

Using Probabilistic Stated Preference Analyses to Understand Actual Choices

Can stated preferences help in counterfactual analyses of actual choice? This research proposes a novel approach to researchers who have access to both stated choices in hypothetical scenarios and actual choices. The key idea is to use probabilistic stated choices to identify the distribution of individual unobserved heterogeneity, even in the presence of measurement error. If this unobserved heterogeneity is the source of endogeneity, the researcher can correct for its influence in a demand function estimation using actual choices, and recover causal effects. Estimation is possible with an off-the-shelf Group Fixed Effects estimator.

econ.EM↗

arXiv2023

Just Ask Them Twice: Choice Probabilities and Identification of Ex ante returns and Willingness-To-Pay

One of the exciting developments in the stated preference literature is the use of probabilistic stated preference experiments to estimate semi-parametric population distributions of ex ante returns and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for a choice attribute. This relies on eliciting several choices per individual, and estimating separate demand functions, at the cost of possibly long survey instruments. This paper shows that the distributions of interest can be recovered from at most two stated choices, without requiring ad-hoc parametric assumptions. Hence, it allows for significantly shorter survey instruments. The paper also shows that eliciting probabilistic stated choices allows identifying much richer objects than we have done so far, and therefore, provides better tools for ex ante policy evaluation. Finally, it showcases the feasibility and relevance of the results by studying the preference of high ability students in Cote d'Ivoire for public sector jobs exploiting a unique survey on this population. Our analysis supports the claim that public sector jobs might significantly increase the cost of hiring elite students for the private sector.

econ.EM↗

arXiv2020

Role models and revealed gender-specific costs of STEM in an extended Roy model of major choice

We derive sharp bounds on the non consumption utility component in an extended Roy model of sector selection. We interpret this non consumption utility component as a compensating wage differential. The bounds are derived under the assumption that potential utilities in each sector are (jointly) stochastically monotone with respect to an observed selection shifter. The research is motivated by the analysis of women's choice of university major, their under representation in mathematics intensive fields, and the impact of role models on choices and outcomes. To illustrate our methodology, we investigate the cost of STEM fields with data from a German graduate survey, and using the mother's education level and the proportion of women on the STEM faculty at the time of major choice as selection shifters.

econ.EM↗

arXiv2019

Sharp bounds and testability of a Roy model of STEM major choices

We analyze the empirical content of the Roy model, stripped down to its essential features, namely sector specific unobserved heterogeneity and self-selection on the basis of potential outcomes. We characterize sharp bounds on the joint distribution of potential outcomes and testable implications of the Roy self-selection model under an instrumental constraint on the joint distribution of potential outcomes we call stochastically monotone instrumental variable (SMIV). We show that testing the Roy model selection is equivalent to testing stochastic monotonicity of observed outcomes relative to the instrument. We apply our sharp bounds to the derivation of a measure of departure from Roy self-selection to identify values of observable characteristics that induce the most costly misallocation of talent and sector and are therefore prime targets for intervention. Special emphasis is put on the case of binary outcomes, which has received little attention in the literature to date. For richer sets of outcomes, we emphasize the distinction between pointwise sharp bounds and functional sharp bounds, and its importance, when constructing sharp bounds on functional features, such as inequality measures. We analyze a Roy model of college major choice in Canada and Germany within this framework, and we take a new look at the under-representation of women in~STEM.

econ.EM↗