A Comparison of Algorithms for Conjoint Choice Designs

We study the performance of some widely-used design construction algorithms like the coordinate exchange and swapping-cycling as well as some of their versions. We measure performance in two ways, namely, first, by measuring jointly both running time and the efficiency achieved, and, second, by fixing the running time of the algorithms and measuring the efficiency achieved while allowing the number of choice situations to vary. In addition, we also analyse the performance in terms of heterogeneous designs. A somewhat surprising outcome of our analyses is that a simplified version of the joint swapping-cycling algorithm outperforms the coordinate-exchange algorithm irrespective of the performance measure.