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Efficient Matching in the School Choice Problem

Author

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  • Philip J. Reny

Abstract

Stable matchings in school choice needn't be Pareto efficient and can leave thousands of students worse off than necessary. Call a matching μ priority-neutral if no matching can make any student whose priority is violated by μ better off without violating the priority of some student who is made worse off. Call a matching priority-efficient if it is priority-neutral and Pareto efficient. We show that there is a unique priority-efficient matching and that it dominates every priority-neutral matching and every stable matching. Moreover, truth-telling is a maxmin optimal strategy for every student in the mechanism that selects the priority-efficient matching.

Suggested Citation

  • Philip J. Reny, 2022. "Efficient Matching in the School Choice Problem," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(6), pages 2025-2043, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:112:y:2022:i:6:p:2025-43
    DOI: 10.1257/aer.20210240
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Ata Atay & Ana Mauleon & Vincent Vannetelbosch, 2022. "Limited Farsightedness in Priority-Based Matching," Papers 2212.07427, arXiv.org.
    2. Rodríguez-Álvarez, Carmelo & Romero-Medina, Antonio, 2024. "School choice with transferable student characteristics," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 103-124.
    3. Tayfun Sonmez & Utku Unver, 2022. "Informed Neutrality in Minimalist Market Design: A Case Study on a Constitutional Crisis in India," Papers 2210.10166, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2024.
    4. Benoit Decerf & Guillaume Haeringer & Martin Van der Linden, 2024. "Incontestable Assignments," Papers 2401.03598, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2024.
    5. Chen, Yiqiu & Möller, Markus, 2024. "Regret-free truth-telling in school choice with consent," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 19(2), May.
    6. Tayfun Sönmez & M. Utku Ünver, 2022. "How (not) to reform India's affirmative action policies for its economically weaker segments," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 1054, Boston College Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C78 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Bargaining Theory; Matching Theory
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

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