Modeling departure time choice for non-workers: A random coefficients hazard model

In this paper, we examine the factors affecting home-based departure time choice for non-workers and improve the techniques of analysis of departure time decisions by using a random coefficients hazard model to account for unobserved heterogeneity across decision makers. The unknown underlying distribution of unobserved heterogeneity is approximated by a nonparametric and a parametric approach separately. Our empirical results indicate that there are significant effects of unobserved heterogeneity on departure time choice of non-workers and that ignoring its effects results in a substantial bias in the parameter estimates. The empirical results also provide insights into the determinants of departure time choice in the context of activity scheduling.