EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Demand Analysis using Strategic Reports: An application to a school choice mechanism

Nikhil Agarwal and Paulo Somaini

No 20775, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Several school districts use assignment systems that give students an incentive to misrepresent their preferences. We find evidence consistent with strategic behavior in Cambridge. Such strategizing can complicate preference analysis. This paper develops empirical methods for studying random utility models in a new and large class of school choice mechanisms. We show that preferences are non-parametrically identified under either sufficient variation in choice environments or a preference shifter. We then develop a tractable estimation procedure and apply it to Cambridge. Estimates suggest that while 82% of students are assigned to their stated first choice, only 72% are assigned to their true first choice because students avoid ranking competitive schools. Assuming that students behave optimally, the Immediate Acceptance mechanism is preferred by the average student to the Deferred Acceptance mechanism by an equivalent of 0.08 miles. The estimated difference is smaller if beliefs are biased, and reversed if students report truthfully.

JEL-codes: C50 D47 I20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dcm, nep-ecm, nep-gth and nep-ure
Note: ED IO
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (35)

Published as 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.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w20775.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Demand Analysis Using Strategic Reports: An Application to a School Choice Mechanism (2018) Downloads
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20775

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w20775

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by (wpc@nber.org).

 
Page updated 2024-12-10
Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20775