Matching and chatting: An experimental study of the impact of network communication on school-matching mechanisms

Tingting Ding and Andrew Schotter

Games and Economic Behavior, 2017, vol. 103, issue C, 94-115

Abstract: While, in theory, the school matching problem is a static non-cooperative one-shot game, in reality the “matching game” is played by parents who choose their strategies after consulting or chatting with other parents in their social networks. In this paper we compare the performance of the Boston and the Gale–Shapley mechanisms in the presence of chatting through social networks. Our results indicate that allowing subjects to chat has an important impact on the likelihood that subjects change their strategies and also on the welfare and stability of the outcomes determined by the mechanism.

Keywords: School choice; Matching; Mechanism design; Networks; Chat (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 C78 C91 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (23)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:gamebe:v:103:y:2017:i:c:p:94-115

DOI: 10.1016/j.geb.2016.02.004

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