Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/273823 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Series/Report no.: 
Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper No. TI 2023-012/VIII
Publisher: 
Tinbergen Institute, Amsterdam and Rotterdam
Abstract: 
Point allocation experiments are widely used in the social sciences. In these experiments, survey respondents distribute a fixed total number of points across a fixed number of alternatives. This paper reviews the different perspectives in the literature about what respondents do when they distribute points across options. We find three main alternative interpretations in the literature, each having different implications for empirical work. We connect these interpretations to models of utility maximization that account for point and budget constraints and investigate the role of budget constraints in more detail. We show how these constraints impact the regression specifications for point allocation experiments that are commonly used in the literature. We also show how a formulation of a taste for variety as entropy that had been previously used to analyse market shares can fruitfully be applied to choice behaviour in point allocation experiments.
Subjects: 
constant-sum paired comparison
probabilistic choice
entropy
constrained optimization
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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