Quantitative Tools

I’ve developed tools to help researchers conduct behavioral economic analyses. Below are some of my key contributions.

Shiny Apps

shinybeez: A Shiny App for Behavioral Economic (be) Easy (ez) Demand and Discounting

Live App

shinyapps.io

GitHub Repository

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Publication

Kaplan, B. A. & Reed, D. D. (2025). shinybeez: A Shiny app for Behavioral Economic Easy Demand and Discounting. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. doi: 10.1002/jeab.70000

shinybeez is an R Shiny app that allows analyses and visualizations of behavioral economic demand and discounting data. It relies on the beezdemand and beezdiscounting R packages. In addition to a comprehensive user guide, template files, and dark mode toggle, shinybeez includes the following features:

Demand

  • Exportable descriptive table of demand data (mean, median, sd, proportion of zeros, etc.)

  • Exportable empirical measures of demand data (Intensity, BP0, BP1, Omax, Pmax)

  • Exportable table of systematic response sets (customizable bounce, trend, reversals from zero criteria)

  • Exportable table of regression results (Q0, \(\alpha\), R2, derived and exact Omax, Pmax)

  • Exportable plot in APA format of demand data and best-fit lines (customizable plot title, axis title text, pseudo-log axes) in png, pdf, svg, and more

  • Option to calculate descriptive and regression results by a grouping variable

  • Choose between the exponential model of demand or the exponentiated model of demand

  • Select various k values (1-4, individual k, fitted k, empirical range of data)

  • Choose between Fit to Group (pooled), Fit to Group (mean), and Two Stage

Discounting

  • Choose between conducting nonlinear regression, scoring the 27-Item Monetary Choice Questionnaire (MCQ), the 5-trial minute task for delay discounting, and the 5-trial minute task for probability discounting

  • Exportable table of systematic response sets (Johnson & Bickel, 2008)

  • Choose between Mazur’s (1987) simple hyperbolic discounting model or the exponential model of discounting

  • Exportable plot in APA format of discounting data and best-fit lines (customizable plot title, axis title text, log x-axis) in png, pdf, svg, and more

  • Score the 27-Item MCQ identically to that of the 27-Item MCQ Automated Scorer in Microsoft Excel

  • Choose various methods to impute missing data for the 27-Item MCQ

  • Choose between no transformation, log10, transformation, and natural log transformation

  • Exportable table of MCQ results (overall, small, medium, large, and geomean (i.e., composite) k values; overall, small, medium, large, and composite consistency; overall, small, medium, and large proportion of LDR/LL chosen; and the imputation method)

  • Exportable table of summary statistics (mean, sd, sem)

  • Exportable table of correlations between small, medium, and large magnitudes

  • Exportable table of imputed data when imputing missing data

  • Exportable plot in APA format of proportion of SIR/SS choices by k value rank

  • Exportable plot in APA format of box plot of k values


R Packages

beezdemand: Behavioral Economic (be) Easy (ez) Demand

CRAN Package

GitHub Repository

Publication

Kaplan, B. A., Gilroy, S. P., Reed, D. D., Koffarnus, M. N., & Hursh, S. R. (2019). The R package beezdemand: Behavioral Economic Easy Demand. Perspectives on Behavior Science, 42(1), 163-180. doi: 10.1007/s40614-018-00187-7

Key Features
  • Functions for analyzing behavioral economic demand data
  • Computes elasticity, intensity, Omax, Pmax
  • Supports multiple model fitting approaches
  • Seamless integration with shinybeez


beezdiscounting: Behavioral Economic (be) Easy (ez) Discounting

CRAN Package

GitHub Repository

Key Features
  • Calculates discounting k-values using nonlinear regression
  • Supports hyperbolic and exponential discounting models
  • Scores the 27-Item Monetary Choice Questionnaire
  • Detects unsystematic discounting patterns
  • Computes Area Under the Curve (AUC) measures
  • Seamless integration with shinybeez


Other Tools

Kaplan, B. A., Lemley, S. M., Reed, D. D., & Jarmolowicz, D. P. (2014) 21- and 27-item Monetary Choice Questionnaire automated scorer [Microsoft Excel].

Kaplan, B. A. & Reed, D. D. (2014) Essential value, Pmax, and Omax automated calculator [Microsoft Excel].