Utility Models

Due: October 11 by 11:59pm

Weight: This assignment is worth 3% of your final grade.

Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is to get familiar with utility models, which will be the underyling modeling framework we will use for constructing choice models.

Assessment: This assignment is graded using a check system:

  • ✔+ (110%): Responses shows phenomenal thought and engagement with the course content. I will not assign these often.
  • ✔ (100%): Responses are thoughtful, well-written, and show engagement with the course content. This is the expected level of performance.
  • ✔− (50%): Responses are hastily composed, too short, and/or only cursorily engages with the course content. This grade signals that you need to improve next time. I will hopefully not assign these often.

Notice that this is essentially a pass/fail system. I’m not grading your writing ability and I’m not counting the number of words you write - I’m looking for thoughtful engagement. One or two sentences is not enough. Write at least a paragraph and show me that you did the readings assigned.

1. Get Organized

Download and edit this template when working through this assignment.

Then unzip the template folder (make sure you unzip it!), then open the .Rproj file to open RStudio. Open the hw5.Rmd file, take notes, and write some example code as you go through the following.

2. Readings

Next week we will start getting into choice modeling. I have pre-recorded videos covering most of the technical concepts we will use for estimating choice models in this Youtube playlist. Feel free to look ahead at concepts we’ll be covering over the next few weeks.

For this coming week, you should watch the first video:
Introduction to Choice Modeling

Take notes as you watch the video. Throughout the video, I ask practice questions at several places - you should answer to those questions as part of your reflection. You may submit your answers however you wish, e.g. hand-write them on paper and take a picture and / or type answers in your reflection .Rmd file.

Click here to download the slides in the video as a PDF.

If you are interested in more details about the logit model, see Chapter 3 (free pdf) of Kenneth Train’s book, “Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation”

3. Reflect

Reflect on what you’ve learned while going through these readings and exercises. Is there anything that jumped out at you? Anything you found particularly interesting or confusing? Write at least a paragraph in your hw5.Rmd file. Here are some suggestions:

  • Discuss some of the key insights or things you found interesting in the readings or recent class periods.
  • Write about the messiest data you’ve seen.
  • Connect the course content to your own work or project you’re working on.

4. Knit

Click the “knit” button to compile your hw5.Rmd file into a html web page. Then open the hw5.html file in a web browser and proofread your report. Does all of the formatting look correct?

5. Submit

To submit this assignment, create a zip file of all the files in your R project folder for this assignment. Name the zip file hw5-netID.zip, replacing netID with your netID (e.g., hw5-jph.zip). Then copy that zip file into the “submissions” folder in your Box folder created for this class.