Heterogeneous Demand

UCSD MGT 100 Week 06

Kenneth C. Wilbur and Dan Yavorsky

Let’s reflect

Segmentation Case study: Quidel

  • Leading B2B manufacturer of home pregnancy tests
  • Tests were quick and reliable
  • Wanted to enter the B2C HPT market
  • Market research found 2 segments of equal size;
    what were they?

Het. Demand Models

  1. Discrete heterogeneity by segment

  2. Continuous heterogeneity by customer attributes

  3. Individual-level demand parameters

           -   We'll do 1 & 2

MNL Demand

  • Recall our MNL market share function \(s_{jt}=\frac{e^{x_{jt}\beta-\alpha p_{jt}}}{\sum_{k=1}^{J}{e^{x_{kt}\beta-\alpha p_{kt}}}}\)

  • What is \(\alpha\)?

  • What is \(\beta\)?

  • What limitations does this model have?

  • Incorporating customer heterogeneity into demand models can enable a rich array of segment-specific or person-specific customer analytics

Why add het.?

  1. MNL can estimate quality; Het demand estimates quality & fit

  2. Better “policy experiments” for variables we {manage,can measure,predict sales}

       - Pricing: price discrimination, two-part tariffs, fees, targeted coupons
       - Customer relationships: Loyalty bonus, referral bonus, freebies
       - Social media: Posts, likes, shares, comments, reviews
       - Advertising: Ad frequency, content, media, channels
       - Product attributes: Targeted attributes, line extensions, brand extensions
       - Distribution: Partner selection, intensity/shelfspace, exclusion, in-store environment
  3. Predicts M&A results; oft used in antitrust

1. Discrete heterogeneity by segment

  • Assume each customer \(i=1,...,N\) is in exactly 1 of \(l=1,...,L\) segments with sizes \(N_l\) and \(N=\sum_{l=1}^{L}N_l\)
  • Assume preferences are homogeneous within segments, and heterogeneous between segments
  • Replace \(u_{ijt}=x_{jt}\beta-\alpha p_{jt}+\epsilon_{ijt}\) with \(u_{ijt}=x_{jt}\beta_l-\alpha_l p_{jt}+\epsilon_{ijt}\)
  • That implies \(s_{ljt}=\frac{e^{x_{jt}\beta_l-\alpha_l p_{jt}}}{\sum_{k=1}^{J}e^{x_{kt}\beta_l-\alpha_l p_{kt}}}\) and \(s_{jt}=\sum_{l=1}^{L}N_l s_{ljt}\)
  • We will do this with predefined segments based on usage
  • We can also estimate segment memberships. Pros and cons?

2. Continuous heterogeneity by customer attributes

  • Let \(w_{it}\sim F(w_{it})\) be observed customer attributes that drive demand, e.g. usage

  • \(w_{it}\) is often a vector of customer attributes including an intercept

  • Assume \(\alpha=\gamma w_{it}\) and \(\beta=\delta w_{it}\)

  • Then \(u_{ijt}=x_{jt}\delta w_{it}- p_{jt}\gamma w_{it} +\epsilon_{ijt}\) and

\[s_{jt}=\int \frac{e^{x_{jt}\delta w_{it}- p_{jt}\gamma w_{it}}}{\sum_{k=1}^{J}e^{x_{jt}\delta w_{it}- p_{jt}\gamma w_{it}}} dF(w_{it}) \approx \frac{1}{N_t}\sum_i \frac{e^{x_{jt}\delta w_{it}- p_{jt}\gamma w_{it}}}{\sum_{k=1}^{J}e^{x_{jt}\delta w_{it}- p_{jt}\gamma w_{it}}}\]

      - We usually approximate this integral with a Riemann sum
  • What goes into \(w_{it}\)?

  • What if \(dim(x)\) or \(dim(w)\) is large?

3. Individual demand parameters

  • Assume \((\alpha_i,\beta_i)\sim F(\Theta)\)

        - Includes the Hierarchical Bayesian Logit from weeks 2&3
  • Then \(s_{jt}=\int\frac{e^{x_{jt}\alpha_i-\beta_i p_{jt}}}{\sum_{k=1}^{J}e^{x_{jt}\alpha_i-\beta_i p_{jt}}}dF(\Theta)\)

  • Typically, we assume \(F(\Theta)\) is multivariate normal, for convenience, and estimate \(\Theta\)

    • We usually have to approximate the integral, often use Bayesian techniques (MSBA/PhD)
    • Or, we can estimate \(F\) but that is very data intensive
    • In theory, we can estimate all \((\alpha_i,\beta_i)\) pairs without \(\sim F(\Theta)\) assumption, but requires numerous observations & sufficient variation for each \(i\)

How to choose?

  • Humans choose the model

  • How do you know if you specified the right model?

        - Hints: No model is ever "correct." No assumption is ever "true" (why not?)
  • How do you choose among plausible specifications?

  • Pros and cons of model enrichments or simplifications?

Model specification

  • Bias-variance tradeoff

      - Adding predictors always increases model fit
      - Yet parsimony often improves predictions
  • Many criteria drive model selection

      - Modeling objectives
      - Theoretical properties
      - Model flexibility 
      - Precedents & prior beliefs
      - In-sample fit
      - Prediction quality
      - Computational properties

How to avoid overfitting?

  • Retrodiction = “RETROspective preDICTION”

          - Knowing what happened enables you to evaluate prediction quality
          - We can compare different models and different specifications on retrodictions
  • We can even train a model to maximize retrodiction quality (“Cross-validation”)

          - Most helpful when the model's purpose is prediction
          - More approaches: Choose intentionally simple models
          - Penalize the model for uninformative parameters: Lasso, Ridge, Elastic Net, etc.

Cross-validation

  • Exercise to evaluate retrodiction performance and reduce overfitting risk among a set of candidate models \(m=1,...,M\). Algorithm:
  1. Randomly divide the data into \(K\) distinct folds
  2. Hold out fold \(k\), use remaining data to estimate model \(m\), make predictions for fold \(k\); store prediction errors
  3. Repeat 2 for each \(k\)
  4. Repeat 2&3 for every model \(m\)
  5. Retain the model with minimum prediction errors

        - You estimate the model K times
        - Each estimation uses a different (K-1)/K proportion of the data
        - We evaluate retrodiction quality K times, then average them
        - When K=N, we call that "leave-one-out" cross-validation
        - Important: cross-validation is just one tool in the toolbox
        - Final model selection also depends on theory, objectives, other criteria

Ex-post evaluations

  • Can a model withstand changes in the environment?
  • Non-random holdouts are strong tests, but can only be retrospective

Het demand modeling: More considerations

  • Customer data needs to be high quality (GIGO, Errors-in-variables biases)
  • Implementation needs to consider qualitative factors {effectiveness, legality, morality, privacy, conspicuousness, equity, reactance, costs, speed, understanding}
    • Guiding principle (not a rule):
      Using data to legally, genuinely serve customers’ interests is usually OK
    • Using private data against customer interest can harm some consumers, break laws, or incur liability. Litigation can kill a start-up
    • Major US laws: COPPA, GLBA, HIPAA, patchwork of state laws
  • Heterogeneity in a demand model does not resolve price endogeneity

  • T/F: Adding random predictors into \(X\) can decrease OLS \(R^2\).

Class script

  • Add heterogeneity to MNL model
  • Individual-level heterogeneity via price-minutes interaction
  • Segment-level heterogeneity via segment-attribute interactions
  • Both

Wrapping up

Homework

  • Let’s take a look

Recap

  • Heterogeneous demand models enable personalized and segment-specific policy experiments

  • Demand models can incorporate discrete, continuous and/or individual-level heterogeneity structures

  • Heterogeneous models fit better, but will predict worse if overfit

Going further