ASA Connect

Dear Colleagues,

We would like to invite you to a one-week MIT course taught remotely from June 16-20, 2025:

Discrete Choice Analysis: Predicting Individual Behavior and Market Demand

Discrete choice models are used in many fields such as economics, engineering, environmental management, marketing, urban planning, and transportation. The course is designed for modelers who wish to acquire in-depth knowledge of the latest developments.  It is intended for both academics and professionals.

The course covers: alternative models including Logit, Probit, Nested Logit, Multivariate Extreme Value, discrete and continuous Logit Mixtures and Hybrid Choice Models; and alternative estimation methods including simulated maximum likelihood, Hierarchical Bayes, instrumental variable methods and random effects in panel data.  Recent additions to the course include "Foundations of Stated Preference Elicitation: Consumer Behavior and Choice-based Conjoint Analysis" by Moshe Ben-Akiva, Daniel McFadden and Kenneth Train, estimation of flexible model specifications using machine learning methods and online applications for optimization and personalization. Each day of this course consists of lectures followed by a computer lab to apply the lectured methods with open source software and data sets. Initial lectures and lab session review required fundamental concepts.

One full-tuition scholarship will be awarded to an outstanding doctoral student with an application deadline of April 30, 2025. Partial scholarships (50%) are available for junior faculty, postdocs, and doctoral students.

Additional information is available here. We appreciate your help in making people aware of this unique opportunity to study this summer at MIT.

Thanks,

Moshe Ben-Akiva

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Moshe Ben-Akiva
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Edmund K. Turner Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Director, Intelligent Transportation Systems Lab
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Thank you. I will forward to my Pharma Health Economist colleagues.  My Big Pharma Health economist and "Strategic Pricing" colleagues were fond of "conjoint analysis". I didn't fully appreciate until I looked for the citations, that conjoint analysis was originally co-developed by John Tukey and several others (Luce, Debreu et al). This is Tukey's co author paper on the conjoint analysis

Luce, R. D.; Tukey, J. W. (January 1964). "Simultaneous conjoint measurement: a new scale type of fundamental measurement". Journal of Mathematical Psychology. 1 (1): 1–27. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.334.5018. doi:10.1016/0022-2496(64)90015-X.

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Chris Barker, Ph.D.
Adjunct Associate Professor of Biostatistics
www.barkerstats.com


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"In composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in 15 seconds, in improvisation you have 15 seconds."
-Steve Lacy
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-20-2025 12:42
From: Moshe Ben-Akiva
Subject: MIT Discrete Choice Analysis short course | June 16-20, 2025

Dear Colleagues,

We would like to invite you to a one-week MIT course taught remotely from June 16-20, 2025:

Discrete Choice Analysis: Predicting Individual Behavior and Market Demand

Discrete choice models are used in many fields such as economics, engineering, environmental management, marketing, urban planning, and transportation. The course is designed for modelers who wish to acquire in-depth knowledge of the latest developments.  It is intended for both academics and professionals.

The course covers: alternative models including Logit, Probit, Nested Logit, Multivariate Extreme Value, discrete and continuous Logit Mixtures and Hybrid Choice Models; and alternative estimation methods including simulated maximum likelihood, Hierarchical Bayes, instrumental variable methods and random effects in panel data.  Recent additions to the course include "Foundations of Stated Preference Elicitation: Consumer Behavior and Choice-based Conjoint Analysis" by Moshe Ben-Akiva, Daniel McFadden and Kenneth Train, estimation of flexible model specifications using machine learning methods and online applications for optimization and personalization. Each day of this course consists of lectures followed by a computer lab to apply the lectured methods with open source software and data sets. Initial lectures and lab session review required fundamental concepts.

One full-tuition scholarship will be awarded to an outstanding doctoral student with an application deadline of April 30, 2025. Partial scholarships (50%) are available for junior faculty, postdocs, and doctoral students.

Additional information is available here. We appreciate your help in making people aware of this unique opportunity to study this summer at MIT.

Thanks,

Moshe Ben-Akiva

------------------------------
Moshe Ben-Akiva
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Edmund K. Turner Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Director, Intelligent Transportation Systems Lab
------------------------------