IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/23535.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Foundations of Welfare Economics and Product Market Applications

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel McFadden

Abstract

A common problem in applied economics is to determine the impact on consumers of changes in prices and attributes of marketed products as a consequence of policy changes. Examples are prospective regulation of product safety and reliability, or retrospective compensation for harm from defective products or misrepresentation of product features. This paper reexamines the foundations of welfare analysis for these applications. We consider discrete product choice, and develop practical formulas that apply when discrete product demands are characterized by mixed multinomial logit models and policy changes affect hedonic attributes of products in addition to price. We show that for applications that are retrospective, or are prospective but compensating transfers are hypothetical rather than fulfilled, a Market Compensating Equivalent measure that updates Marshallian consumer surplus is more appropriate than Hicksian compensating or equivalent variations. We identify the welfare questions that can be answered in the presence of partial observability on the preferences of individual consumers. We examine the welfare calculus when the experienced-utility of consumers differs from the decision-utility that determines market demands, as the result of resolution of contingencies regarding attributes of products and interactions with consumer needs, or as the result of inconsistencies in tastes and incomplete optimizing behavior. We conclude with an illustrative application that calculates the welfare impacts of unauthorized sharing of consumer information by video streaming services.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel McFadden, 2017. "Foundations of Welfare Economics and Product Market Applications," NBER Working Papers 23535, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23535
    Note: IO PE
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w23535.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Varian, Hal R, 1982. "The Nonparametric Approach to Demand Analysis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(4), pages 945-973, July.
    2. Train, Kenneth, 2015. "Welfare calculations in discrete choice models when anticipated and experienced attributes differ: A guide with examples," Journal of choice modelling, Elsevier, vol. 16(C), pages 15-22.
    3. Daniel L. McFadden & Mogens Fosgerau, 2012. "A theory of the perturbed consumer with general budgets," NBER Working Papers 17953, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Dubin, Jeffrey A & McFadden, Daniel L, 1984. "An Econometric Analysis of Residential Electric Appliance Holdings and Consumption," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(2), pages 345-362, March.
    5. Loewenstein, George & Ubel, Peter A., 2008. "Hedonic adaptation and the role of decision and experience utility in public policy," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(8-9), pages 1795-1810, August.
    6. Heiss, Florian & Leive, Adam & McFadden, Daniel & Winter, Joachim, 2013. "Plan selection in Medicare Part D: Evidence from administrative data," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1325-1344.
    7. Schmeiser, Steven, 2014. "Consumer inference and the regulation of consumer information," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 192-200.
    8. John K. Dagsvik & Anders Karlström, 2005. "Compensating Variation and Hicksian Choice Probabilities in Random Utility Models that are Nonlinear in Income," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(1), pages 57-76.
    9. Mas-Colell, Andreu & Whinston, Michael D. & Green, Jerry R., 1995. "Microeconomic Theory," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195102680.
    10. Resnick, Sidney I. & Roy, Rishin, 1990. "Leader and maximum independence for a class of discrete choice models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 259-263, July.
    11. Willig, Robert D, 1976. "Consumer's Surplus without Apology," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(4), pages 589-597, September.
    12. McFadden, Daniel, 1974. "The measurement of urban travel demand," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 303-328, November.
    13. Daniel McFadden & Kenneth Train, 2000. "Mixed MNL models for discrete response," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(5), pages 447-470.
    14. Conniffe Denis, 2007. "A Note on Generating Globally Regular Indirect Utility Functions," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-13, January.
    15. Yatchew, Adonis John, 1985. "Applied welfare analysis with discrete choice models : A comment," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 13-16.
    16. Daniel McFadden, 1986. "The Choice Theory Approach to Market Research," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 5(4), pages 275-297.
    17. Peleg, Bezalel, 1970. "Utility Functions for Partially Ordered Topological Spaces," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 38(1), pages 93-96, January.
    18. Daniel McFadden, 1994. "Contingent Valuation and Social Choice," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 76(4), pages 689-708.
    19. McFadden, Daniel, 2012. "Economic juries and public project provision," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 166(1), pages 116-126.
    20. Chorus, Caspar G. & Timmermans, Harry J.P., 2009. "Measuring user benefits of changes in the transport system when traveler awareness is limited," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 43(5), pages 536-547, June.
    21. Hunt Allcott, 2013. "The Welfare Effects of Misperceived Product Costs: Data and Calibrations from the Automobile Market," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 5(3), pages 30-66, August.
    22. Rader, J Trout, 1973. "Nice Demand Functions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 41(5), pages 913-935, September.
    23. Chipman, John S & Moore, James C, 1980. "Compensating Variation, Consumer's Surplus, and Welfare," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(5), pages 933-949, December.
    24. Diamond, P. A. & McFadden, D. L., 1974. "Some uses of the expenditure function in public finance," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 3-21, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Donald S. Kenkel & Sida Peng & Michael F. Pesko & Hua Wang, 2020. "Mostly harmless regulation? Electronic cigarettes, public policy, and consumer welfare," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(11), pages 1364-1377, November.
    2. De La Maza, Cristóbal & Davis, Alex & Azevedo, Inês, 2021. "Welfare analysis of the ecological impacts of electricity production in Chile using the sparse multinomial logit model," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniel McFadden, 2014. "The new science of pleasure: consumer choice behavior and the measurement of well-being," Chapters, in: Stephane Hess & Andrew Daly (ed.), Handbook of Choice Modelling, chapter 2, pages 7-48, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Daniel L. McFadden, 2013. "The New Science of Pleasure," NBER Working Papers 18687, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. M. Ali Khan & Edward E. Schlee, 2016. "On Lionel McKenzie's 1957 intrusion into 20th‐century demand theory," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 49(2), pages 589-636, May.
    4. J. K. Pappalardo, 2022. "Economics of Consumer Protection: Contributions and Challenges in Estimating Consumer Injury and Evaluating Consumer Protection Policy," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 201-238, June.
    5. Henderson, J. Vernon & Thisse, Jacques-François, 2024. "Urban and spatial economics after 50 years," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 125675, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Committee, Nobel Prize, 2000. "The Scientific Contributions of James Heckman and Daniel McFadden," Nobel Prize in Economics documents 2000-2, Nobel Prize Committee.
    7. Haghani, Milad & Bliemer, Michiel C.J. & Hensher, David A., 2021. "The landscape of econometric discrete choice modelling research," Journal of choice modelling, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    8. Ronald B. Davies & Iulia Siedschlag & Zuzanna Studnicka, 2021. "The impact of taxes on the extensive and intensive margins of FDI," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 28(2), pages 434-464, April.
    9. Nienhueser, Ian Andrew & Qiu, Yueming, 2016. "Economic and environmental impacts of providing renewable energy for electric vehicle charging – A choice experiment study," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 256-268.
    10. Fosgerau, Mogens & McFadden, Daniel & Bierlaire, Michel, 2010. "Choice probability generating functions," MPRA Paper 24214, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Laurent Ott & Mehdi Farsi & Sylvain Weber, 2021. "Beyond political divides: analyzing public opinion on carbon taxation in Switzerland," Chapters, in: Axel Franzen & Sebastian Mader (ed.), Research Handbook on Environmental Sociology, chapter 17, pages 313-339, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Roy Allen & John Rehbeck, 2023. "Revealed stochastic choice with attributes," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 75(1), pages 91-112, January.
    13. Noé Biheng, 2016. "A Generalization of the Expenditure Function," Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 168(2), pages 661-676, February.
    14. Yukihiro Kidokoro, 2015. "Discrete choice models for multicategory goods," GRIPS Discussion Papers 15-08, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.
    15. Bera, Reema & Maitra, Bhargab, 2021. "Assessing consumer preferences for Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV): An Indian perspective," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    16. Phaneuf, Daniel J. & Smith, V. Kerry, 2006. "Recreation Demand Models," Handbook of Environmental Economics, in: K. G. Mäler & J. R. Vincent (ed.), Handbook of Environmental Economics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 15, pages 671-761, Elsevier.
    17. Mogens Fosgerau & André de Palma, 2016. "Generalized entropy models," Working Papers hal-01291347, HAL.
    18. Kesternich, Iris & Heiss, Florian & McFadden, Daniel & Winter, Joachim, 2013. "Suit the action to the word, the word to the action: Hypothetical choices and real decisions in Medicare Part D," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1313-1324.
    19. Wong, Maisy, 2010. "The Relationship between Marginal Willingness-to-Pay in the Hedonic and Discrete Choice Models," MPRA Paper 51218, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Frick, Bernd & Barros, Carlos Pestana & Prinz, Joachim, 2010. "Analysing head coach dismissals in the German "Bundesliga" with a mixed logit approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 200(1), pages 151-159, January.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D11 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Theory
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General
    • D61 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Allocative Efficiency; Cost-Benefit Analysis
    • K13 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Tort Law and Product Liability; Forensic Economics
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23535. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.