A note on the use of rank-ordered logit models for ordered response categories

Abstract

Models for rankings have been shown to produce more efficient estimators than comparable models for first/top choices. The discussions and applications of these models typically only consider unordered alternatives. But these models can be usefully adapted to the case where a respondent ranks a set of ordered alternatives that are ordered response categories. This paper proposes eliciting a rank order that is consistent with the ordering of the response categories, and then modelling the observed rankings using a variant of the rank ordered logit model where the distribution of rankings has been truncated to the set of admissible rankings. This results in lower standard errors in comparison to when only a single top category is selected by the respondents. And the restrictions on the set of admissible rankings reduces the number of decisions needed to be made by respondents in comparison to ranking a set of unordered alternatives. Simulation studies and application examples featuring models based on a stereotype regression model and a rating scale item response model are provided to demonstrate the utility of this approach.