# 302: Itinerary Choice using Simple Nested Logit¶

This example is an itinerary choice model built using the example itinerary choice dataset included with Larch. As usual, we first create the DB objects:

d = larch.DB.Example('AIR')


We will be building a nested logit model, but in order to do so we need to rationalize the alternative numbers. As given, our raw itinerary choice data has a lot of alternatives, but they are not ordered or numbered in a regular way; each elemental alternative has an arbitrary code number assigned to it, and the code numbers for one case are not comparable to another case. We need to renumber the alternatives in a manner that is more suited for our application, such that based on the code number we can programatically extract a the relevant features of the alternative that we will want to use in building our nested logit model. In this example we want to test a model which has nests based on level of service. To renumber, first we will define the relevant categories and values, and establish a numbering system using a special object:

from enum import Enum

class levels_of_service(Enum):
nonstop = 1
withstop = 0

from larch.util.numbering import numbering_system
ns = numbering_system(levels_of_service)


Then we can use a special command on the DB object to assign new alternative numbers.

d.recode_alts(ns, 'data', 'id_case', 'itinerarycode_nl1',
'nb_cnxs==0',
newaltstable='itinerarycodes_nl1',
)


As arguments to this command, we provide the numbering system object, the name of the table that contains the idca data to be numbered (here data), the name of the column in that table that names the caseids, and the name of a new column to be created (or overwritten) with the new code numbers. We also need to give a set of SQL expressions that can be evaluated on the rows of the table to get the categorical values that we defined in the Enums above. In this example, we give nb_cnxs==0, which evaluates to 1 when the itinerary is nonstop, and 0 if the itinerary has a stop, exactly as given in the levels_of_service Enum above. Lastly, we can pass the name of a new table that will be created to identify every observed alternative code.

Once we have completed the preparation of the data, we can build out model.

Now let’s make our model. The utility function we will use is the same as the one we used for the MNL version of the model.

m = larch.Model(d)

vars = [
"timeperiod=2",
"timeperiod=3",
"timeperiod=4",
"timeperiod=5",
"timeperiod=6",
"timeperiod=7",
"timeperiod=8",
"timeperiod=9",
"carrier=2",
"carrier=3",
"carrier=4",
"carrier=5",
"equipment=2",
"fare_hy",
"fare_ly",
"elapsed_time",
"nb_cnxs",
]
from larch.roles import PX
m.utility.ca = sum(PX(i) for i in vars)


If we just end our model specification here, we will have a plain MNL model. To change to a nested logit model, all we need to do is add the nests. We can do this easily, leveraging some special features of the numbering system class we used above. First, we loop over the levels of service, creating a new nest for each. Then we loop over the alternatives, adding all the relevant alternatives to each nest.

for los in levels_of_service:
los_nest = m.new_nest(los.name, param_name="mu_los", parent=m.root_id)
for a in d.alternative_codes():
if ns.code_matches_attributes(a, los):


For a simple static two level model, it might be nearly as easy to explicitly renumber the alternatives and assign them to the appropriate nests. The advantage of the coding shown here is that it automatically keeps the renumbering and the nesting structure in sync, even if the details of the breakdown of nests changes. For instance, to change to have LOS nests based on the number of connections (instead of just the presence of any connection), we could simply change the ns object and the middle argument of the recode_alts method, and the rest of the code will adapt automatically.

To estimate the likelihood maximizing parameters, again we give:

>>> result = m.maximize_loglike()
>>> print(m.report('txt', sigfigs=3))
============================================================================================...
Model Parameter Estimates
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...
Parameter       InitValue       FinalValue      StdError        t-Stat          NullValue
timeperiod=2     0.0             0.0725          0.00767         9.45            0.0
timeperiod=3     0.0             0.097           0.00795         12.2            0.0
timeperiod=4     0.0             0.0471          0.00762         6.18            0.0
timeperiod=5     0.0             0.107           0.00829         12.9            0.0
timeperiod=6     0.0             0.182           0.00964         18.9            0.0
timeperiod=7     0.0             0.269           0.0118          22.8            0.0
timeperiod=8     0.0             0.27            0.0121          22.4            0.0
timeperiod=9     0.0            -0.00687         0.00837        -0.821           0.0
carrier=2        0.0             0.0883          0.00735         12.0            0.0
carrier=3        0.0             0.486           0.0176          27.7            0.0
carrier=4        0.0             0.436           0.0197          22.1            0.0
carrier=5        0.0            -0.483           0.0185         -26.1            0.0
equipment=2      0.0             0.36            0.0137          26.2            0.0
fare_hy          0.0            -0.000927        3.58e-05       -25.9            0.0
fare_ly          0.0            -0.000937        7.12e-05       -13.2            0.0
elapsed_time     0.0            -0.00466         0.000177       -26.3            0.0
nb_cnxs          0.0            -3.11            0.028          -1.11e+02        0.0
mu_los           1.0             0.763           0.0257         -9.23            1.0
============================================================================================...
Model Estimation Statistics
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...
Log Likelihood at Convergence           -777730.13
Log Likelihood at Null Parameters       -953940.44
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...
Rho Squared w.r.t. Null Parameters      0.185
============================================================================================...


Tip

m = larch.Model.Example(302)