A Theory of House Allocation and Exchange Mechanisms

Marek Pycia and M. Utku Ünver
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Marek Pycia: UCLA

No 715, Boston College Working Papers in Economics from Boston College Department of Economics

Abstract: We study the allocation and exchange of indivisible objects without monetary transfers. In market design literature, some problems that fall in this category are the house allocation problem with and without existing tenants, and the kidney exchange problem. We introduce a new class of direct mechanisms that we call "trading cycles with brokers and owners," and show that (i) each mechanism in the class is coalitional strategy-proof and Pareto-efficient, and (ii) each coalitional strategy-proof and Pareto-efficient direct mechanism is in the class. As corollaries, we obtain new characterizations in the aforementioned market design problems.

Keywords: Mechanism design; coalitional strategy-proofness; Pareto-efficiency; matching; house allocation. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C78 D78 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cta and nep-gth
Date: 2009-01-01
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:boc:bocoec:715

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