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choicer: fast discrete-choice models with a focus on economic applications

choicer provides fast discrete-choice estimation for applied economics. Multinomial Logit (MNL), Mixed Logit (MXL), and Nested Logit (NL) use C++ likelihoods, analytical gradients and Hessians, and OpenMP parallelism. Bayesian Multinomial Probit (MNP), Hierarchical Multinomial Logit (HMNL), and Hierarchical Multinomial Probit (HMNP) use dedicated C++ MCMC kernels and posterior diagnostics. A common research interface covers fitted shares, elasticities, diversion, willingness to pay, welfare, counterfactuals, and BLP inversion wherever each model supports the economic object. Frequentist inference includes analytical-Hessian, BHHH, robust/WESML, and cluster-robust covariances, recomputable through vcov() without refitting.

Installation

Install the released version from CRAN:

install.packages("choicer")

Or install the development version from GitHub:

pak::pkg_install("fpcordeiro/choicer")

Example

Estimate a multinomial logit model on the shipped mode_choice data (the classic Greene & Hensher intercity travel-mode study: 210 travellers choosing among air, train, bus, and car) and compute elasticities and diversion ratios:

library(choicer)
data(mode_choice)

# Estimate
fit <- run_mnlogit(
    data           = mode_choice,
    id_col         = "id",
    alt_col        = "mode",
    choice_col     = "choice",
    covariate_cols = c("wait", "travel", "vcost")
)

summary(fit)

mode_choice is a choice-based sample: minority modes were over-sampled and car was under-sampled. With the full set of ASCs used here, the MNL slope coefficients—and therefore the WTP ratios—remain consistent, but the unweighted constants, fitted shares, elasticity levels, and surplus levels reflect the sampling design rather than the population. The following outputs demonstrate the workflow; do not report them as population mode shares or population-average welfare without external population shares and WESML weights (see vignette("wesml")).


# Post-estimation
predict(fit, type = "shares")           # fitted sample shares, not population shares
elasticities(fit, elast_var = "vcost")  # own- and cross-price elasticities
diversion_ratios(fit)                   # diversion ratio matrix
wtp(fit, price_var = "vcost")           # willingness-to-pay with delta-method SEs
gof(fit)                                # McFadden R2 and hit rate (also in summary())

# Counterfactual / policy prediction: cut train fares 25% and predict
mc_cf <- mode_choice
mc_cf$vcost[mc_cf$mode == "train"] <- 0.75 * mc_cf$vcost[mc_cf$mode == "train"]
predict(fit, type = "shares", newdata = mc_cf)

# Illustrative sample-average welfare contrast (not a population estimate)
cs0 <- consumer_surplus(fit, price_var = "vcost")
cs1 <- consumer_surplus(fit, price_var = "vcost", newdata = mc_cf)
cs1$mean_cs - cs0$mean_cs

The same post-estimation toolkit is available for nested logit. Elasticities respect the nest structure — within-nest and cross-nest cross-elasticities differ, so IIA does not hold across nests. The blp() contraction for NL accepts a damping argument (default 1) which can be reduced for models with strong nesting:

# Nested logit — simulate data and fit
sim <- simulate_nl_data(N = 5e4, seed = 123)

fit_nl <- run_nestlogit(
    data                   = sim$data,
    id_col                 = "id",
    alt_col                = "j",
    choice_col             = "choice",
    covariate_cols         = c("X", "W"),
    nest_col               = "nest",
    use_asc                = TRUE,
    include_outside_option = TRUE,
    outside_opt_label      = 0L,
    keep_data              = TRUE   # required for post-estimation
)

# Post-estimation
predict(fit_nl, type = "shares")        # aggregate fitted shares in this simulation
elasticities(fit_nl, elast_var = "X")   # J×J elasticity matrix (nest-consistent)
diversion_ratios(fit_nl)                # J×J diversion matrix
# BLP share inversion: recover mean utilities matching target shares
target_shares <- predict(fit_nl, type = "shares")
blp(fit_nl, target_shares, damping = 0.5)  # use damping < 1 for strongly-nested models

choicer also fits hierarchical Bayesian models with a BLP-style random-effect alternative intercept delta_j = z_j'theta + xi_j on top of respondent-level random coefficients beta_i ~ N(b, W), estimated by Gibbs sampling. Both models share an implicit outside option (no base alternative) and the choicer_hb post-estimation suite — including entry counterfactuals, where a never-observed alternative receives a posterior-predictive delta from its characteristics (see vignette("hb", package = "choicer")):

# Hierarchical Bayesian MNL — simulate panel data and fit
sim_hb <- simulate_hmnl_data(N = 300, T = 6, J = 4, seed = 123)

set.seed(42)
fit_hmnl <- run_hmnlogit(
    data               = sim_hb$data,
    id_col             = "task",
    alt_col            = "alt",
    choice_col         = "choice",
    covariate_cols     = c("x1", "x2"),
    person_col         = "pid",
    alt_covariate_cols = "z1",
    chains             = 2,
    mcmc               = list(R = 4000, burn = 1000, thin = 2)
)

summary(fit_hmnl)

# Posterior-aware post-estimation (x2 is the price-like attribute in this DGP)
wtp(fit_hmnl, price_var = "x2")               # posterior median + quantile interval
consumer_surplus(fit_hmnl, price_var = "x2")  # posterior-median CS by task

# Multi-chain diagnostics and posterior-predictive fit
b_chains <- lapply(fit_hmnl$chains, function(ch) ch$b)
rhat(b_chains, rank = TRUE)
ess(b_chains)
mcse(b_chains)
ppc_shares(fit_hmnl)

For serious posterior work, use multiple chains, inspect rank-normalized R-hat, bulk/tail ESS, MCSE and trace plots for all reported blocks, and increase the run length until the slowest block is stable. choicer’s chains use distinct seeds but the same data-driven initialization, so they are not deliberately overdispersed; a one-chain split diagnostic is weaker still because it cannot reveal disagreement between separately simulated runs.

For HMNL/HMNP, v0.2.0 retains every chain in fit$chains for diagnostics but uses chain 1 for the top-level posterior summaries and post-estimation methods; it does not pool chains automatically.

The Bayesian multinomial probit run_mnprobit() (non-hierarchical, class choicer_mnp) is fit the same way, via prior=/mcmc= instead of an optimizer; see ?run_mnprobit.

Supported models

Model Function Post-estimation
Multinomial Logit run_mnlogit() predict(), elasticities(), diversion_ratios(), blp(), wtp(), gof(), logsum(), consumer_surplus()
Mixed Logit run_mxlogit() predict(), elasticities(), diversion_ratios(), blp(), wtp(), gof(), logsum(), consumer_surplus()
Nested Logit run_nestlogit() predict(), elasticities(), diversion_ratios(), blp(), wtp(), gof(), logsum(), consumer_surplus()
Bayesian MNP run_mnprobit() summary(), coef(), vcov(), recovery_table()
Hierarchical Bayesian MNL run_hmnlogit() predict(), elasticities(), diversion_ratios(), wtp(), logsum(), consumer_surplus(), recovery_table()
Hierarchical Bayesian MNP run_hmnprobit() predict(), elasticities(), diversion_ratios(), wtp(), recovery_table()

The frequentist choicer_fit models (MNL, MXL, NL) support summary(), coef(), vcov(), logLik(), AIC(), BIC(), nobs(), goodness-of-fit, and counterfactual predict(newdata = ). Bayesian choicer_mnp and choicer_hb objects are posterior-draws objects: they support summary(), coef(), vcov(), and nobs(), but not likelihood-based AIC/BIC. MNP does not yet have prediction or economic post-estimation; HMNL and HMNP have their own posterior prediction and substitution methods.

Capability map

Capability MNL MXL NL MNP HMNL HMNP
Panel likelihood / persistent person tastes — — — — yes yes
Flexible unobserved substitution iid EV1 benchmark random tastes nested shocks full differenced-normal covariance panel tastes panel tastes; iid normal shocks
WESML / cluster-robust frequentist inference yes yes yes — — —
Counterfactual prediction yes yes yes — yes yes
Elasticities and diversion yes yes yes — yes yes
Logsum / consumer-surplus welfare yes yes yes — yes —
Entry prediction for unseen alternatives — — — — yes yes
Native multi-chain posterior diagnostics — — — — yes yes

Alternative packages

Several excellent R packages estimate discrete-choice models:

choicer’s distinguishing focus is a fast C++ core with analytical gradients and Hessians, and one consistent post-estimation toolkit aimed at the demand and welfare quantities applied economists report: elasticities, diversion, willingness to pay, consumer surplus, counterfactual aggregate shares, and share inversion, with the matching robust, clustered, and choice-based-sampling inference.