7.14 Consumer Attitudes and Voluntary Rate Schedules for Public Utilities Attitudes enter as latent explanatory variables in a model of consumers' choice among optional rate schedules offered by a public utility. A consistent estimator of the choice model is described that utilizes the distribution of the latent attitude variables conditional on manifest indicator variables. The model is applied to households' choice between time-of-use and non-time differentiated rates for electricity to determine the impact of attitudes about energy conservation.