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Manipulability in school choice

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  • Decerf, Benoit
  • Van der Linden, Martin

Abstract

We compare the manipulability of school choice mechanisms based on the occurrence of dominant strategies. We characterize dominant strategies in the constrained versions of the deferred acceptance (DA) and Boston (BOS) mechanisms. We leverage our characterizations to show that dominant strategies occur more often in constrained DA than in constrained BOS and that these differences can be quantitatively sizable. Dominant strategies also become more frequent in constrained DA as students are allowed to report more schools. Although our focus is on constrained mechanisms, we provide dominant strategies comparisons for other mechanisms as well, including application-rejection mechanisms and mechanisms that Pareto dominate DA.

Suggested Citation

  • Decerf, Benoit & Van der Linden, Martin, 2021. "Manipulability in school choice," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jetheo:v:197:y:2021:i:c:s0022053121001307
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2021.105313
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    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. Bonkoungou, Somouaoga & Nesterov, Alexander, 2023. "Incentives in matching markets: counting and comparing manipulating agents," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 18(3), July.
    3. Benoit Decerf & Guillaume Haeringer & Martin Van der Linden, 2024. "Incontestable Assignments," Papers 2401.03598, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2024.
    4. Chen, Yiqiu & Möller, Markus, 0. "Regret-free truth-telling in school choice with consent," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society.
    5. Atila Abdulkadiroglu & Tommy Andersson, 2022. "School Choice," NBER Working Papers 29822, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Cerrone, Claudia & Hermstrüwer, Yoan & Kesten, Onur, 2021. "School Choice with Consent: An Experiment," Working Papers 2021-09, University of Sydney, School of Economics, revised Feb 2022.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Dominant strategy; Manipulability; Tie-breaking; Boston mechanism; Deferred acceptance mechanism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C78 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Bargaining Theory; Matching Theory
    • D47 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Market Design
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General

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