IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jogath/v54y2025i1d10.1007_s00182-025-00923-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Waitlist engineering in discrete object allocations with outside option

Author

Listed:
  • Mustafa Oğuz Afacan

    (Qatar University)

  • Eray Cumbul

    (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
    TOBB University of Economics and Technology)

Abstract

This study pursues how waitlists should be designed to achieve desirable outcomes in object allocation models with outside option. We adapt the usual stability notion to our setting and call it “sure stability." Our first mechanism—Deferred Acceptance with Straightforward Waitlists (DSW)—is surely stable, and it dominates other surely stable mechanisms unless waitlists are capped, otherwise, it is not even constrained efficient. Given this inefficiency of DSW, we propose Deferred Acceptance with Augmented Waitlists (DAW) mechanism. It is surely stable and improves DSW. Sure stability is incompatible with strategy-proofness, hence both mechanisms are manipulable. We also show that increasing the waitlist capacities is always at least weakly welfare-improving under each of them.

Suggested Citation

  • Mustafa Oğuz Afacan & Eray Cumbul, 2025. "Waitlist engineering in discrete object allocations with outside option," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 54(1), pages 1-22, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:jogath:v:54:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s00182-025-00923-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s00182-025-00923-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00182-025-00923-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00182-025-00923-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Waitlist; Matching; Mechanism; Allocation; Sure stability; Strategy-proofness;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • C78 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Bargaining Theory; Matching Theory
    • D61 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Allocative Efficiency; Cost-Benefit Analysis
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jogath:v:54:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s00182-025-00923-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.