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The purpose of this paper is twofold: to explain access to formal and informal credit in agriculture of Vietnam; and to compare the effectiveness between regular econometrics and machine learning techniques.

The multinomial logit (MNL) regression model and the random forest (RF) technique are employed for comparison purposes. To avoid heteroskedasticity, the robust covariance matrix is computed to estimate the sandwich estimator which in turn provides an asymptotic covariance matrix for biased estimators. Additionally, multicollinearity is tested among independent variables with variance inflation factors less than 3. Adequacy approach and sensitivity analysis are used to determine relevant levels of predictors. For models comparison, statistical evaluation metrics including Cohen’s κ, mean absolute error, root mean squared error and relative absolute error are employed.

The discrepancy between sensitivity analysis and adequacy approach revealed that MNL is more compatible for explaining determinants of credit participation. Due to insignificant differences in the evaluation metrics between models, the winner of choice is undetermined. Among other determinants, collateral, farmsize, income, procedure, literacy and all risk variables stand out to be critical factors when deciding borrowing schemes. While financially literate farmers tend to acquire loans from both sources, borrowing decisions against different risk sources depend on risk type and famers’ own desire to borrow.

Results of the MNL model are more consistent with literatures, which reinforce the role of collateral in the local credit scheme. Besides, financial literacy and farmers’ perception on different risk sources also influence how farmers’ borrowing strategies vary among sources.

This article presents the results of a study using discrete choice analysis (DCA) in the dine‐in pizza industry. DCA offers an effective approach for incorporating customer preferences into operating decisions in service businesses. Our results show how customers tradeoff among several determinant attributes (e.g. price, waiting time, quality) when choosing a dine‐in pizza restaurant. The article also offers evidence that managers’ perceptions of customer choice patterns are not the same as customers’ actual choice patterns for the businesses we examined. Finally, we show how our results can be easily incorporated into a decision support system for structuring service operations according to customer preferences.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of the European Novel Food Regulation (ENFR) on consumers’ acceptance of and willingness to pay (WTP) for radical food innovations. The research question is focussed on determining whether the ENFR is hampering the market potential of insect-based food products in the European Union (EU). The authors position this question within the domain of regulatory barriers related to food innovations.

Using a choice experiment, the authors assess the presence and relevance of these failures through the analysis of consumers’ acceptance and WTP for insect-based food products with different product attributes directly imposed by the ENFR. Namely, the authors assess the effect of the visualization of insects in the product, the use of logo, and nutritional information.

The results show that consumers prefer and are willing to pay a premium price for insect-based products with a nutritional health claim and logo, but they are not willing to pay for a product with a visualized insect.

This paper highlights the risk of regulatory failures for novel foods in the EU, such as insect-based food products due to the ENFR.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the role of local labour market conditions and pupil educational attainment as primary determinants of the post-compulsory schooling decision.

Through the specification of a nested logit model, the restrictive independence of irrelevant alternatives (IIA) assumption inherent in the multinomial logit (MNL) model is relaxed across multiple unordered outcomes.

The analysis shows that the factors influencing schooling decisions differ for males and females. For females, on average, the key drivers of the schooling decision are expected wage returns based on youth educational attainment, attitudes to school and parental aspirations, rather than local labour market conditions. For males, higher local unemployment rates encourage greater investment in education.

The contribution of this paper to the existing literature is threefold. First, a nested logit model is proposed as an alternative to a MNL. The former can formally incorporate the structured and sequential decision-making process that youths may engage with in relation to the post-compulsory schooling decision, as well as relaxing the restrictive IIA assumption inherent in the MNL across multiple unordered outcomes, an issue the authors discuss in more detail in the Methodology section below. Second, the analysis is based on extremely rich socio-economic data from the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England, matched to local labour market data and administrative data from the National Pupil Database and Pupil Level Annual School Census, which provide a broad set of unusually high-quality measures of prior attainment. The authors argue that such high-quality data and an appropriate model specification allows identification of the determinants of the post-compulsory decision in a more detailed manner than many previous analyses. Third, the data have the scale necessary to consider whether the determinants of post-compulsory schooling decisions vary by gender, a particularly important issue given the differential education participation rates of males and females (e.g. in this cohort, females are about 10 percentage points more likely to go on to higher education in the UK than males), and the gendered choices of occupation (see, e.g. Bertrand, 2011). The work will, therefore, provide recent empirical evidence from England on gender differences in the determinants of education choices.

The decision of livelihood based on the embankment characters is essentially multivariate. Making an effort to do the bivariate modelling may eliminate the useful socio-economic information in the interdependent and simultaneous adaptation choices (Dorfman, 1996). Hence, the more appropriate method is multiple-choice decisions to livelihood adoption based on the embankment category. The purpose of this study is to find out whether the inhabitants of Sundarban really consider embankment as their “lifeline”, what they think about its sustainability and what the outer world thinks about the embankment.

To analyse this study, the multinomial logit (MNL) model has been used. This model gives a platform to study the influence of the factors on livelihood choice decisions. In this MNL model, the livelihood decisions are categorized based on their primary livelihood status at the survey. Thus, the choice of livelihood among individuals is explained in terms of the livelihood and the household characteristics.

This result can possibly explain the fact that increasing population or man power and increasing annual income and protection from embankment failure may reduce the need to choose any other form of economy apart from the indigenous one, as the society is dominated by farmers who own very small plots of land and face consequences like crop failure every year because of natural calamities. A unit increase in annual income would result in a 0.53% decrease in the probability of choosing labourer as occupation and 0.57% decrease in the probability of choosing fishing/“meen” collection as occupation.

The district is vast enough, and it is difficult to study all the blocks. Initially, nine blocks were identified as affected blocks from various literature reviews. Those blocks are Sagar, Patharpratima, Kultali, Gosaba, Kakdwip, Canning I, Canning II, Namkhana and Basanti. Pilot surveys were done to all those nine blocks identified above. After such a long and rigorous procedure, blocks were verified from available secondary data. Villages from vulnerable and less vulnerable parts of the later mentioned blocks are picked up as purposive sample, and household surveys are done on the basis of random sampling.

If the year of schooling is enhanced, then the tertiary sector gets benefited, but the indigenous society of Sundarban cannot depend on such a sector as the scope for development is very limited. Consequently, policies aiming at promoting adaptation to challenged livelihood need to emphasize the crucial role of providing basic needs for better production techniques; and more investment in this sector will surely enable villagers to adapt cultivation following age-old tradition.

The study uses the MNL model to investigate the factors guiding household choices of different occupational adaptation methods, and cultivation is found to be the automatic choice for the inhabitants of Sundarban. Cultivation is impossible without embankment. Thus, the embankment in Sundarban is considered, as “lifeline” is established. So it can be said that livelihood in this region depends on the stability of embankment. This age-old structure is susceptible to vulnerability because of its unscientific construction and improper maintenance. The main objective of this study is to find out whether the inhabitants of Sundarban really consider embankment as their “lifeline”, what they think about its sustainability and what the outer world thinks about the embankment.

This paper aims to extend the work by Vafeas and Lie and Lie by developing an empirical model of choice among four alternative mechanisms for distributing cash from corporations to shareholders: a fixed‐price self‐tender offer, a Dutch auction self‐tender offer, an open market share repurchase, and a special dividend.

A multinomial logit (MNL) model adapted for choice‐based sampling is used to examine the factors that influence a firm's choice among the four methods.

Firms with a high degree of heterogeneity in shareholder valuations tend to select an open market repurchase, while firms with low levels of heterogeneity choose a special dividend. Firms already paying high dividends are more likely to issue a special dividend than institute an open market repurchase. A firm with poor stock performance prior to the announcement is more likely to choose a fixed‐price self‐tender offer or open market share repurchase. On the other hand, firms are more likely to follow strong performance with a special dividend. Contrary to Persons' model, it is found that firms facing a takeover threat are more likely to choose a fixed‐price tender offer than a Dutch auction.

It is shown that the ownership structure, current payout level; the size of the distribution, and the degree of stock undervaluation are among the most important determinants of a firm's choice among alternative payout methods.

This study adds to the existing literature by developing the first empirical model of choice among all four one‐time (or infrequent) corporate cash disbursement methods. It is also the first to adjust the MNL estimates for the choice‐based sampling method used to collect the data.

This paper aims to examine rice farmers' selection of adaptation strategies to cope with and offset the effects of climate change and the determinants of those selections in Rajshahi, a severely drought-prone district of Bangladesh.

Farm-level micro data were obtained from 550 rice growers in the 2010-2011 farming season. A multinomial logit (MNL) model was utilised to assess the determinants of adaptation strategies practised by farmers in response to climate change.

Results from the MNL model indicate that gender, age, education of household heads, household assets, annual farm income, farm size, tenure status, farmer-to-farmer extension, access to credit, access to subsidy, and access to electricity, all affect farmers' selection of adaptation strategies for climate change.

This is the first study of its kind to analyse the determinants of adaptation strategies for climate change by farmers in drought-prone areas of Bangladesh. This study provides direction for policy makers in order to strengthen the adaptation strategies of farmers and guide policies accordingly. These strategies have the potential to minimise the adverse effects of climate change.

The chapter outlines the principles underlying relative utility models, discusses the results of empirical applications and critically assesses the usefulness of this specification against commonly used random utility models and other context dependence models. It also discusses how relative utility can be viewed as a generalisation of context dependency.

In contrast to the conventional concept of random utility, relative utility assumes that decision-makers derive utility from their choices relative to some threshold(s) or reference points. Relative utility models thus systematically specify the utility against such thresholds or reference points.

Examples in the chapter show that relative utility model perform well in comparison to conventional utility-maximising models in some circumstances.

Examples of relative utility models are rare in transportation research. The chapter shows that several recent models can be viewed as special cases of relative utility models.