upside & downside of choice simulation

Question

We read, know and use the powerful method of choice simulation with Sawtooth. However, I am wondering if there are any downsides of simulating people's preferences? Is this also legit for scientific publication. I know there are some publications out there but I am wondering if they are legit, too? thanks for your reply.

Answer 1

I'm unaware of any downside to seeing what the utilities imply about shares of preference.  

That said, simulations are not commonly done in scientific publications - there the emphasis is all about statistical inference and testing of model parameters, with much less emphasis on the things one might do with the model results in applied practice.