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Affirmative actions: The Boston mechanism case

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  • Afacan, Mustafa Oğuz
  • Salman, Umutcan

Abstract

We consider three popular affirmative action policies in school choice: quota-based, priority-based, and reserve-based affirmative actions. The Boston mechanism (BM) is responsive to the latter two policies in that a stronger priority-based or reserve-based affirmative action makes some minority student better off. However, a stronger quota-based affirmative action may yield a Pareto inferior outcome for the minority under the BM. These positive results disappear once we look for a stronger welfare consequence on the minority or focus on BM equilibrium outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Afacan, Mustafa Oğuz & Salman, Umutcan, 2016. "Affirmative actions: The Boston mechanism case," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 95-97.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:141:y:2016:i:c:p:95-97
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2016.02.014
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ehlers, Lars & Hafalir, Isa E. & Yenmez, M. Bumin & Yildirim, Muhammed A., 2014. "School choice with controlled choice constraints: Hard bounds versus soft bounds," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 648-683.
    2. , Emin & , Bumin & , Ali, 2013. "Effective affirmative action in school choice," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 8(2), May.
    3. Kojima, Fuhito, 2012. "School choice: Impossibilities for affirmative action," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 685-693.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Di Feng & Yun Liu & Gaowang Wang, 2023. "On the Asymptotic Performance of Affirmative Actions in School Choice," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 24(2), pages 289-307, November.
    2. Yun Liu, 2017. "On the welfare effects of affirmative actions in school choice," Review of Economic Design, Springer;Society for Economic Design, vol. 21(2), pages 121-151, June.
    3. Yuri Faenza & Swati Gupta & Xuan Zhang, 2022. "Discovering Opportunities in New York City's Discovery Program: Disadvantaged Students in Highly Competitive Markets," Papers 2203.00544, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2023.
    4. Umut Dur & Yifan Xie, 2023. "Responsiveness to priority‐based affirmative action policy in school choice," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 25(2), pages 229-244, April.
    5. Jiao, Zhenhua & Tian, Guoqiang, 2018. "Two further impossibility results on responsive affirmative action in school choice," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 60-62.
    6. Minoru Kitahara & Yasunori Okumura, 2023. "School Choice with Multiple Priorities," Papers 2308.04780, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2024.
    7. Jiao, Zhenhua & Shen, Ziyang, 2020. "On responsiveness of top trading cycles mechanism to priority-based affirmative action," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    8. Doğan, Battal & Klaus, Bettina, 2018. "Object allocation via immediate-acceptance: Characterizations and an affirmative action application," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 140-156.
    9. Domenico Moramarco & Umutcan Salman, 2023. "Equal opportunities in many-to-one matching markets," Working Papers 649, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    10. Jiao, Zhenhua & Tian, Guoqiang, 2019. "Responsive affirmative action in school choice: A comparison study," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 140-145.
    11. Eun Jeong Heo, 2023. "Financial aid in college admissions: need-based versus merit-based," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 60(1), pages 265-297, January.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Boston mechanism; Affirmative actions; Minority; Welfare;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C70 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - General
    • D61 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Allocative Efficiency; Cost-Benefit Analysis

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