Hostname: page-component-7b9c58cd5d-wdhn8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-17T07:30:27.420Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Assignment feedback in school choice mechanisms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Daniel Stephenson*
Affiliation:
Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA

Abstract

This paper experimentally investigates the provision of real-time feedback about school assignments during the preference reporting period in three widely employed mechanisms: deferred acceptance, top trading cycles, and the Boston mechanism. Adaptive models predict that greater sensitivity to tentative assignments during the reporting period will produce more equilibrium assignments in all three mechanisms. Consistent with adaptive predictions, real-time assignment feedback consistently increased equilibrium assignments but did not increase truthful reporting. These findings suggest that providing feedback about assignments during the preference reporting period could help student assignment mechanisms more reliably achieve policy goals.

Type
Original Paper
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Economic Science Association 2022.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-022-09767-6.

Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

References

Abdulkadiroglu, A., & Sönmez, T. (2003). School choice: A mechanism design approach. The American Economic Review, 93(3), 729747. 10.1257/000282803322157061CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, I., & Hakimov, R. (2020). Iterative versus standard deferred acceptance: Experimental evidence. The Economic Journal, 130(626), 356392.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W., & Von Neumann, J. (1950). Solutions of games by differential equations. Contributions to the Theory of Games, 1(73–79), 43.Google Scholar
Calsamiglia, C., Haeringer, G., & Klijn, F. (2010). Constrained school choice: An experimental study. American Economic Review, 100(4), 18601874. 10.1257/aer.100.4.1860CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cason, T., Friedman, D., & Hopkins, E. (2013). Cycles and instability in a rock-paper-scissors population game: A continuous time experiment. Review of Economic Studies, 81, 112136. 10.1093/restud/rdt023CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Y., & Kesten, O. (2019). Chinese college admissions and school choice reforms: An experimental study. Games and Economic Behavior, 115, 83100. 10.1016/j.geb.2019.02.003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Y., & Sönmez, T. (2006). School choice: An experimental study. Journal of Economic theory, 127(1), 202231. 10.1016/j.jet.2004.10.006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Y., Jiang, M., Kesten, O., Robin, S., & Zhu, M. (2018). Matching in the large: An experimental study. Games and Economic Behavior, 110, 295317. 10.1016/j.geb.2018.04.004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cournot, A-A (1838). Researches into the mathematical principles of the theory of wealth, Paris: Chez L. Hachette.Google Scholar
Ding, T., & Schotter, A. (2019). Learning and mechanism design: An experimental test of school matching mechanisms with intergenerational advice. The Economic Journal, 129(623), 27792804. 10.1093/ej/uez024CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dur, U., Hammond, R. G., & Morrill, T. (2018). Identifying the harm of manipulable school-choice mechanisms. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 10(1), 187213.Google Scholar
Ergin, H., & Sönmez, T. (2006). Games of school choice under the Boston mechanism. Journal of Public Economics, 90(1), 215237. 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2005.02.002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Featherstone, C. R., & Niederle, M. (2016). Boston versus deferred acceptance in an interim setting: An experimental investigation. Games and Economic Behavior, 100, 353375. 10.1016/j.geb.2016.10.005CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fudenberg, D., Drew, F., Levine, D. K., & Levine, D. K. (1998). The theory of learning in games, Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Gale, D., & Shapley, L. S. (1962). College admissions and the stability of marriage. The American Mathematical Monthly, 69(1), 915. 10.1080/00029890.1962.11989827CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilboa, I., & Matsui, A. (1991). Social stability and equilibrium. Econometrica: Journal of the Econometric Society, 1, 859867. 10.2307/2938230CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gong, B., & Liang, Y. (2020). A dynamic matching mechanism for college admissions: Theory and experiment. Technical report, Working paper.Google Scholar
Guillen, P., & Hakimov, R. (2018). The effectiveness of top-down advice in strategy-proof mechanisms: A field experiment. European Economic Review, 101, 505511. 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2017.10.020CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hofbauer, J., & Sigmund, K. (2003). Evolutionary game dynamics. Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, 40(4), 479519. 10.1090/S0273-0979-03-00988-1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klijn, F., Pais, J., & Vorsatz, M. (2013). Preference intensities and risk aversion in school choice: A laboratory experiment. Experimental Economics, 16(1), 122. 10.1007/s10683-012-9329-5CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klijn, F., Pais, J., & Vorsatz, M. (2019). Static versus dynamic deferred acceptance in school choice: Theory and experiment. Games and Economic Behavior, 113, 147163. 10.1016/j.geb.2018.08.009CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, J., & Riyanto, Y. E. (2017). The limit to behavioral inertia and the power of default in voluntary contribution games. Social Choice and Welfare, 48(4), 815835. 10.1007/s00355-017-1036-xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norman, T. W. L. (2009). Rapid evolution under inertia. Games and Economic Behavior, 66(2), 865879. 10.1016/j.geb.2008.10.002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oprea, R., Henwood, K., & Friedman, D. (2011). Separating the hawks from the doves: Evidence from continuous time laboratory games. Journal of Economic Theory, 146(6), 22062225. 10.1016/j.jet.2011.10.014CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pais, J., & Pintér, Á (2008). School choice and information: An experimental study on matching mechanisms. Games and Economic Behavior, 64(1), 303328. 10.1016/j.geb.2008.01.008CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roth, A. E. (1982). The economics of matching: Stability and incentives. Mathematics of Operations Research, 7(4), 617628. 10.1287/moor.7.4.617CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roth, A. E. (2008). Deferred acceptance algorithms: History, theory, practice, and open questions. International Journal of game Theory, 36(3–4), 537569. 10.1007/s00182-008-0117-6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sandholm, W. H. (2010). Population games and evolutionary dynamics, Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Schneider, M., & Stephenson, D. G. (2021). Bargains, price signaling, and efficiency in markets with asymmetric information. Games and Economic Behavior, 128, 160181. 10.1016/j.geb.2021.04.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shapley, L., & Scarf, H. (1974). On cores and indivisibility. Journal of Mathematical Economics, 1(1), 2337. 10.1016/0304-4068(74)90033-0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, J. M. (1982). Evolution and the theory of games, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 10.1017/CBO9780511806292CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stephenson, D. (2019). Coordination and evolutionary dynamics: When are evolutionary models reliable?. Games and Economic Behavior, 113, 381395. 10.1016/j.geb.2018.10.002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stephenson, D. G., & Brown, A. L. (2020). Playing the field in all-pay auctions. Experimental Economics, 24, 489514. 10.1007/s10683-020-09669-5CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, P. D., & Jonker, L. B. (1978). Evolutionary stable strategies and game dynamics. Mathematical Biosciences, 40(1–2), 145156. 10.1016/0025-5564(78)90077-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Elteren, P. H. (1960). On the combination of independent two sample tests of Wilcoxon. Bulletin Institute of the International Statistical, 37, 351361.Google Scholar
Vanacore, A. (2012). Centralized enrollment in recovery school district gets first tryout. Times-Picayune.Google Scholar
Website. (2022a). Polk county open enrollment news. Retrieved 2022-06-02 from https://polkschoolsfl.com/newsrelease/controlled-open-enrollment-begins-april-4/.Google Scholar
Website. (2022b). Polk county open enrollment application instructions. Retrieved 2022-06-02 from https://polkschoolsfl.com/applicationinstructions/.Google Scholar
Website. (2022c). Pasadena open enrollment. Retrieved 2022-06-02 from https://www.pusd.us/cms/lib/CA01901115/Centricity/Domain/54/OE.Google Scholar
Website. (2022d). Pasadena application information. Retrieved 2022-06-02 from https://www.pusd.us/Page/7800.Google Scholar
Zhao, Y. D. (2006). Sample size estimation for the van elteren test: a stratified Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney test. Statistics in Medicine, 25(15), 26752687. 10.1002/sim.2441CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Stephenson supplementary material

Stephenson supplementary material
Download Stephenson supplementary material(File)
File 230.6 KB