12. Mixture of logit with panel data

Bayesian estimation of a mixture of logit models. The datafile is organized as panel data. Note that, with Bayesian estimation, there is no need to calculate a Monte-Carlo integration.

Michel Bierlaire, EPFL Mon Jun 08 2026, 16:45:17

from pathlib import Path

from IPython.core.display_functions import display

See the data processing script: Panel data preparation for Swissmetro.

from swissmetro_panel import (
    CAR_AV_SP,
    CAR_CO_SCALED,
    CAR_TT_SCALED,
    CHOICE,
    SM_AV,
    SM_COST_SCALED,
    SM_TT_SCALED,
    TRAIN_AV_SP,
    TRAIN_COST_SCALED,
    TRAIN_TT_SCALED,
    database,
)

import biogeme.biogeme_logging as blog
from biogeme.bayesian_estimation import (
    BayesianResults,
    BayesianResultsSummary,
    get_pandas_estimated_parameters,
)
from biogeme.biogeme import BIOGEME
from biogeme.expressions import Beta, DistributedParameter, Draws
from biogeme.models import loglogit

logger = blog.get_screen_logger(level=blog.INFO)
logger.info('Example b12_panel.py')
Example b12_panel.py

The scale parameters must stay away from zero. We define a small but positive lower bound

POSITIVE_LOWER_BOUND = 1.0e-5

Parameters to be estimated.

b_cost = Beta('b_cost', 0, None, 0, 0)

Define a random parameter, normally distributed across individuals, designed to be used for Monte-Carlo simulation.

b_time = Beta('b_time', 0, None, 0, 0)
b_time_s = Beta('b_time_s', 1, POSITIVE_LOWER_BOUND, None, 0)
b_time_eps = Draws('b_time_eps', 'NORMAL')
b_time_eps.set_draw_per_individual()
b_time_rnd = DistributedParameter('b_time_rnd', b_time + b_time_s * b_time_eps)

We do the same for the constants, to address serial correlation.

asc_car = Beta('asc_car', 0, None, None, 0)
asc_car_s = Beta('asc_car_s', 1, POSITIVE_LOWER_BOUND, None, 0)
asc_car_eps = Draws('asc_car_eps', 'NORMAL')
asc_car_eps.set_draw_per_individual()
asc_car_rnd = DistributedParameter('asc_car_rnd', asc_car + asc_car_s * asc_car_eps)

asc_train = Beta('asc_train', 0, None, None, 0)
asc_train_s = Beta('asc_train_s', 1, POSITIVE_LOWER_BOUND, None, 0)
asc_train_eps = Draws('asc_train_eps', 'NORMAL')
asc_car_eps.set_draw_per_individual()
asc_train_rnd = DistributedParameter(
    'asc_train_rnd', asc_train + asc_train_s * asc_train_eps
)

asc_sm = Beta('asc_sm', 0, None, None, 0)
asc_sm_s = Beta('asc_sm_s', 1, POSITIVE_LOWER_BOUND, None, 0)
asc_sm_eps = Draws('asc_sm_eps', 'NORMAL')
asc_sm_eps.set_draw_per_individual()
asc_sm_rnd = DistributedParameter('asc_sm_rnd', asc_sm + asc_sm_s * asc_sm_eps)

Definition of the utility functions.

v_train = asc_train_rnd + b_time_rnd * TRAIN_TT_SCALED + b_cost * TRAIN_COST_SCALED
v_swissmetro = asc_sm_rnd + b_time_rnd * SM_TT_SCALED + b_cost * SM_COST_SCALED
v_car = asc_car_rnd + b_time_rnd * CAR_TT_SCALED + b_cost * CAR_CO_SCALED

Associate utility functions with the numbering of alternatives.

v = {1: v_train, 2: v_swissmetro, 3: v_car}

Associate the availability conditions with the alternatives.

av = {1: TRAIN_AV_SP, 2: SM_AV, 3: CAR_AV_SP}

Conditional on the random parameters, the likelihood of one observation is given by the logit model (called the kernel).

log_probability_one_observation = loglogit(v, av, CHOICE)

As the objective is to illustrate the syntax, we calculate the Monte-Carlo approximation with a small number of draws.

the_biogeme = BIOGEME(
    database,
    log_probability_one_observation,
    warmup=10,
    bayesian_draws=10,
    chains=4,
)
the_biogeme.model_name = 'b12_panel'
Biogeme parameters read from biogeme.toml.

Estimate the posterior distribution of the parameters, or read the results if already available.

yaml_file = Path('saved_results') / f'{the_biogeme.model_name}.yaml'
try:
    summary_results = BayesianResultsSummary.from_yaml_file(filename=yaml_file)
except FileNotFoundError:
    results: BayesianResults = the_biogeme.bayesian_estimation()
    summary_results = results.to_summary()
print(summary_results.short_summary())
Sample size                                              6768
Sampler                                                  NUTS
Number of chains                                         4
Number of draws per chain                                10
Total number of draws                                    40
Acceptance rate target                                   0.9
Run time                                                 0:00:34.586676
Posterior predictive log-likelihood (sum of log mean p)  -2437.80
Expected log-likelihood E[log L(Y|θ)]                    -2970.18
Best-draw log-likelihood (posterior upper bound)         -2361.92
LOO (Leave-One-Out Cross-Validation)                     -4166.68
LOO Standard Error                                       114.80
Effective number of parameters (p_LOO)                   1728.88

Present the parameter estimates in a pandas table.

pandas_results = get_pandas_estimated_parameters(
    estimation_results=summary_results,
)
display(pandas_results)
          Name  Value (mean)  Value (median)  ...     R hat  ESS (bulk)  ESS (tail)
0    asc_train     -0.658919       -1.009254  ...  1.832815   12.896308   10.000000
1       asc_sm     -0.256996       -0.367869  ...  2.042811   12.159689   10.000000
2      asc_car      0.145434        0.119962  ...  2.010509   12.302062   15.950334
3  asc_train_s      1.087535        0.376770  ...  2.449345   11.391980   10.000000
4       b_time     -4.536881       -4.720844  ...  2.569186   11.196754   10.000000
5     b_time_s      2.385072        2.621050  ...  2.864608   10.972045   14.950761
6       b_cost     -2.732010       -2.751515  ...  2.481499   11.382822   10.000000
7     asc_sm_s      1.102227        0.670608  ...  2.873325   10.952119   15.434381
8    asc_car_s      2.062333        2.603280  ...  2.319321   11.577769   10.000000

[9 rows x 12 columns]

Report the variables stored in the Bayesian estimation results.

display(summary_results.report_stored_variables())
            group       variable           dims    shape
0   constant_data      CAR_AV_SP          [obs]   [6768]
1   constant_data  CAR_CO_SCALED          [obs]   [6768]
2   constant_data  CAR_TT_SCALED          [obs]   [6768]
3   constant_data         CHOICE          [obs]   [6768]
4   constant_data          SM_AV          [obs]   [6768]
..            ...            ...            ...      ...
57   sample_stats         energy  [chain, draw]  [4, 10]
58   sample_stats             lp  [chain, draw]  [4, 10]
59   sample_stats        n_steps  [chain, draw]  [4, 10]
60   sample_stats      step_size  [chain, draw]  [4, 10]
61   sample_stats     tree_depth  [chain, draw]  [4, 10]

[62 rows x 4 columns]

Total running time of the script: (0 minutes 1.465 seconds)

Gallery generated by Sphinx-Gallery