We assess the importance and robustness of cluster analysis and latent class analysis as methods to account for unobserved heterogeneity. We provide a critique and comparison of both methods in the context of measuring environmental attitudes and a contingent valuation study involving endangered...

Survey data on forest owner attitudes can be used to divide forest owners into types, each type forming a group of similar owners with attitudes differing markedly from those observed for other types. Such an empirical typology can be developed using a range of different statistical methods,...

Practitioners of outdoor sports, such as rock-climbers, are likely to exhibit preference heterogeneity that depends on the 'keenness' with which such sports are practiced. Such an intuition is born out in at least one study using latent class discrete choice modelling (Provencher et al. 2002)....