Pregibit: A Family of Discrete Choice Models

The pregibit discrete choice model is built on a distribution that allows symmetry or asymmetry and thick tails, thin tails or no tails. Thus the model is much richer than the traditional models that are typically used to study behavior that generates discrete choice outcomes. Pregibit nests logit, approximately nests probit, loglog, cloglog and gosset models, and yields a linear probability model that is solidly founded on the discrete choice framework that underlies logit and probit.post-secondary education, probit, logit, asymmetry, discrete choice, mortgage application

Diagnosing the Productivity Effect of Public Capital in the Private Sector

Does public capital contribute to the productivity in the private sector? If so, which part of the private sector benefits most? Is public capital a substitute for or a complement of labor and private capital? This paper addresses these questions with both cost and profit function models estimated on U.S. time series data of the private sector and two of its subsectors. It pays special attention to nonstationarity in the data, to endogeneity in the price variables, and to the statistical and economic significance of the public capital effect.

Pregibit: A family of discrete choice models

The pregibit discrete choice model is built on a distribution that allows symmetry or asymmetry and thick tails, thin tails or no tails. Thus the model is much richer than the traditional models that are typically used to study behavior that generates discrete choice outcomes. Pregibit nests logit, approximately nests probit, loglog, cloglog and gosset models, and yields a linear probability model that is solidly founded on the discrete choice framework that underlies logit and probit

Betit: A Family That Nests Probit and Logit

This paper proposes a dichotomous choice model that is based on a transformed beta (or "z") distribution. This model, called betit, nests both logit and probit and allows for various skewed and peaked disturbance densities. Because the shape of this density affects the estimated relation between the dichotomous choice variable and its determinants, the greater flexibility of the transformed beta distribution is useful in generating more accurate representations of this relationship. The paper considers asymptotic biases of the logit and probit models under conditions where betit should have been used. It also investigates small sample power and provides two examples of applications that illustrative of the capability of the betit model

Schooling, family background, and adoption: Is it nature or is it nurture?

When parents are more educated, their children tend to receive more schooling as well. Does this occur because parental ability is passed on genetically or because more educated parents provide a better environment for children to flourish? Using an intergenerational sample of families, we estimate on the basis of a comparison of biological and adopted children that about 65 to 80 percent of the parental ability is genetically transmitted.Mitä korkeammin koulutetut vanhemmat sitä pidemmälle yleensä myös lapset kouluttautuvat. Johtuuko tämä siitä, että vanhempien etevyys siirtyy geneettisesti jälkipolvelle, vai tarjoavatko korkeammin koulutetut vanhemmat lapsilleen paremman ympäristön harjoittaa kykyjään ja menestyä? Käyttäessämme sukupolvivaihtelut huomioivaa otosta eri perheistä, tulee biologisten ja adoptoitujen lasten vertailun pohjalta tehtyjen estimointien tulokseksi se, että noin 65-80 % vanhempien kyvykkyydestä välittyy geneettisesti

Testing for IIA with the Hausman-McFadden Test

The Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives assumption inherent in multinomial logit models is most frequently tested with a Hausman-McFadden test. As is confirmed by many findings in the literature, this test sometimes produces negative outcomes, in contradiction of its asymptotic χ² distribution. This problem is caused by the use of an improper variance matrix and may lead to an invalid statistical inference even when the test value is positive. With a correct specification of the variance, the sampling distribution for small samples is indeed close to a χ² distribution.multinomial logit, IIA assumption, Hausman-McFadden test