IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/japmet/v41y2026i3p323-329.html

Beyond Truth‐Telling: A Replication Study on School Choice

Author

Listed:
  • Tommy Andersson
  • Dany Kessel
  • Nils Lager
  • Elisabet Olme
  • Simon Reese

Abstract

In a recent paper, Fack et al. (2019, American Economic Review) convincingly argue and theoretically demonstrate that there may be strong incentives for students to play non‐truth‐telling strategies when reporting preferences over schools, even when the celebrated deferred acceptance algorithm is employed. Their statistical test also rejects the (weak) truth‐telling assumption in favour of another assumption, called stability, using a single data set on school choice in Paris. This paper uses Swedish school choice data and replicates their empirical finding in 45 of the 57 investigated data sets (p value threshold 0.05).

Suggested Citation

  • Tommy Andersson & Dany Kessel & Nils Lager & Elisabet Olme & Simon Reese, 2026. "Beyond Truth‐Telling: A Replication Study on School Choice," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(3), pages 323-329, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:japmet:v:41:y:2026:i:3:p:323-329
    DOI: 10.1002/jae.70038
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/jae.70038
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/jae.70038?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
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hakimov, Rustamdjan & Kübler, Dorothea, 2021. "Experiments on centralized school choice and college admissions: a survey," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 24(2), pages 434-488.
    2. Yeon-Koo Che & Dong Woo Hahm & YingHua He, 2023. "Leveraging Uncertainties to Infer Preferences: Robust Analysis of School Choice," Papers 2309.14297, arXiv.org.
    3. Julien Combe & Umut Mert Dur & Olivier Tercieux & Camille Terrier & M. Utku Ünver, 2022. "Market Design for Distributional Objectives in (Re)assignment: An Application to Improve the Distribution of Teachers in Schools," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 1050, Boston College Department of Economics.
    4. Justine S. Hastings & Jeffrey M. Weinstein, 2008. "Information, School Choice, and Academic Achievement: Evidence from Two Experiments," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(4), pages 1373-1414.
    5. Marinho Bertanha & Margaux Luflade & Ismael Mourifi'e, 2023. "Causal Effects in Matching Mechanisms with Strategically Reported Preferences," Papers 2307.14282, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2026.
    6. Julien Combe & Olivier Tercieux & Camille Terrier, 2022. "The Design of Teacher Assignment: Theory and Evidence," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(6), pages 3154-3222.
    7. Alex Rees-Jones & Ran Shorrer, 2023. "Behavioral Economics in Education Market Design: A Forward-Looking Review," Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(3), pages 557-613.
    8. Hayri A. Arslan, 2021. "Preference estimation in centralized college admissions from reported lists," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(5), pages 2865-2911, November.
    9. Diana Ngo & Andrew Dustan, 2024. "Preferences, Access, and the STEM Gender Gap in Centralized High School Assignment," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 16(4), pages 257-287, October.
    10. Atı̇la Abdulkadı̇roğlu & Joshua D. Angrist & Yusuke Narita & Parag Pathak, 2022. "Breaking Ties: Regression Discontinuity Design Meets Market Design," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 90(1), pages 117-151, January.
    11. Nikhil Agarwal & Paulo Somaini, 2018. "Demand Analysis Using Strategic Reports: An Application to a School Choice Mechanism," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 86(2), pages 391-444, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Emil Chrisander & Andreas Bjerre-Nielsen, 2023. "Why Do Students Lie and Should We Worry? An Analysis of Non-truthful Reporting," Papers 2302.13718, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2023.
    2. Chen, Jiafeng, 2026. "Nonparametric treatment effect identification in school choice," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    3. Müge Süer & Michel Tolksdorf & Vincent Meisner & Sokol Tominaj, 2025. "Confidence and Information in Strategy-Proof School Choice," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 546, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    4. Camille Terrier & Parag A. Pathak & Kevin Ren, 2026. "From Immediate Acceptance to Deferred Acceptance: Effects on School Admissions and Achievement in England," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 18(1), pages 44-87, January.
    5. Simon Gleyze & Philippe Jehiel, 2023. "Expectation Formation, Local Sampling and Belief Traps: A new Perspective on Education Choices," Working Papers halshs-04154324, HAL.
    6. Atila Abdulkadiroglu & Tommy Andersson, 2022. "School Choice," NBER Working Papers 29822, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Bo, Shiyu & Liu, Jing & Shiu, Ji-Liang & Song, Yan & Zhou, Sen, 2019. "Admission mechanisms and the mismatch between colleges and students: Evidence from a large administrative dataset from China," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 27-37.
    8. Yusuke Narita, 2021. "A Theory of Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of School Quality," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(8), pages 4982-5010, August.
    9. Olivier de Groote & Anaïs Fabre & Margaux Luflade & Arnaud Maurel, 2025. "Sequential College Admission Mechanisms and Off-Platform Options," Working Papers hal-05212878, HAL.
    10. Chen, Yan & He, YingHua, 2021. "Information acquisition and provision in school choice: An experimental study," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    11. Bjerre-Nielsen, Andreas & Christensen, Lykke Sterll & Gandil, Mikkel Høst & Sievertsen, Hans Henrik, 2023. "Playing the System: Address Manipulation and Access to Schools," IZA Discussion Papers 16197, IZA Network @ LISER.
    12. Caterina Calsamiglia & Chao Fu & Maia Güell, 2014. "Structural Estimation of a Model of School Choices: the Boston Mechanism vs. Its Alternatives," Working Papers 2014-21, FEDEA.
    13. Bnaya Dreyfuss & Ofer Glicksohn & Ori Heffetz & Assaf Romm, 2026. "Deferred Acceptance with News Utility," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 72(3), pages 2090-2110, March.
    14. Afacan, Mustafa Oǧuz, 2024. "Non-vetoed matching with status quo," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    15. Peter Katuščák & Thomas Kittsteiner, 2025. "Strategy-Proofness Made Simpler," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 71(9), pages 7560-7578, September.
    16. Bach, Maximilian & Klein, Thilo & McNamara, Sarah, 2024. "Access, achievements, and aspirations: The impacts of school tracking on student outcomes," ZEW Discussion Papers 24-076, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    17. Yusuke Narita, 2020. "A Theory of Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of School Quality," Working Papers 2020-085, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    18. Christopher Neilson & Felipe Arteaga & Adam Kapor & Seth Zimmerman, 2021. "Smart Matching Platforms and Heterogeneous Beliefs in Centralized School ChoiceSmart Matching Platforms and Heterogeneous Beliefs in Centralized School Choice," Working Papers 650, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    19. Shorrer, Ran I. & Sóvágó, Sándor, 2024. "Dominated choices under deferred acceptance mechanism: The effect of admission selectivity," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 167-182.
    20. Artemov, Georgy, 2021. "Assignment mechanisms: Common preferences and information acquisition," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions

    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:wly:japmet:v:41:y:2026:i:3:p:323-329. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.interscience.wiley.com/jpages/0883-7252/ .

    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.