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Incompatibility between stability and consistency

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  • Afacan, Mustafa Oğuz
  • Dur, Umut Mert

Abstract

Stability is a main concern in the school choice problem. However, it does not come for free. The literature shows that stability is incompatible with Pareto efficiency. Nevertheless, it has been ranked over Pareto efficiency by many school districts, and thereof, they are using stable mechanisms. In this note, we reveal another important cost of stability: “consistency”, which is a robustness property that requires from a mechanism that whenever some students leave the problem along with their assignments, the remaining students’ assignments do not change after running the mechanism in the smaller problem. Consequently, we show that no stable mechanism is consistent.

Suggested Citation

  • Afacan, Mustafa Oğuz & Dur, Umut Mert, 2017. "Incompatibility between stability and consistency," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 135-137.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:150:y:2017:i:c:p:135-137
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2016.11.022
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    7. Fuhito Kojima & M. Ünver, 2014. "The “Boston” school-choice mechanism: an axiomatic approach," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 55(3), pages 515-544, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Afacan, Mustafa Og̃uz & Dur, Umut Mert, 2017. "When preference misreporting is Harm[less]ful?," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 16-24.
    2. Battal Dogan & Bumin Yenmez, 2017. "Unified Enrollment in School Choice: How to Improve Student Assignment in Chicago," Cahiers de Recherches Economiques du Département d'économie 17.10, Université de Lausanne, Faculté des HEC, Département d’économie.
    3. Battal Doğan & M. Bumin Yenmez, 2020. "Consistent Pareto improvement over the student-optimal stable mechanism," Economic Theory Bulletin, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 8(1), pages 125-137, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Matching theory; Market design; Consistency; Stability; Incompatibility; School choice;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

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

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