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School Choice with Consent: An Experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Claudia Cerrone

    (Middlesex University)

  • Yoan Hermstrüwer

    (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn)

  • Onur Kesten

    (School of Economics, The University of Sydney)

Abstract

Public school choice often yields student assignments that are neither fair nor efficient. The efficiency-adjusted deferred acceptance mechanism (EADAM) allows students to consent to waive priorities that have no effect on their assignments. A burgeoning recent literature places EADAM at the center of the trade-off between efficiency and fairness in school choice. Meanwhile, the Flemish Ministry of Education has taken the first steps to implement this algorithm in Belgium. We provide the first experimental evidence on the performance of EADAM against the celebrated deferred acceptance mechanism (DA). We find that both efficiency and truth-telling rates are higher under EADAM than under DA, even though EADAM is not strategy-proof. When the priority waiver is enforced, efficiency further increases, while truth-telling rates decrease relative to the EADAM variants where students can dodge the waiver. Our results challenge the importance of strategy-proofness as a prerequisite for truth-telling and portend a new trade-off between efficiency and vulnerability to preference manipulation.

Suggested Citation

  • Claudia Cerrone & Yoan Hermstrüwer & Onur Kesten, 2022. "School Choice with Consent: An Experiment," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2022_02, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, revised Jul 2023.
    • Handle: RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2022_02
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Cited by:

    1. Ortega, Josué & Klein, Thilo, 2023. "The cost of strategy-proofness in school choice," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 515-528.
    2. Ortega, Josue & Klein, Thilo, 2022. "Improving efficiency and equality in school choice," ZEW Discussion Papers 22-046, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    3. Chen, Yiqiu & Möller, Markus, 2024. "Regret-free truth-telling in school choice with consent," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 19(2), May.
    4. Peter Troyan, 2022. "Non-Obvious Manipulability of the Rank-Minimizing Mechanism," Papers 2206.11359, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2024.
    5. Afacan, Mustafa Oğuz & Evdokimov, Piotr & Hakimov, Rustamdjan & Turhan, Bertan, 2022. "Parallel markets in school choice," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 181-201.
    6. repec:hhs:lunewp:2023_012 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Mustafa Oguz Afacan & Umut Dur & A. Arda Gitmez & Ozgur Y{i}lmaz, 2022. "Improving the Deferred Acceptance with Minimal Compromise," Papers 2205.00032, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2023.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    efficiency-adjusted deferred acceptance algorithm; school choice; consent; default rules; law;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C78 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Bargaining Theory; Matching Theory
    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior
    • D47 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Market Design
    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • K10 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - General (Constitutional Law)

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