How Lotteries in School Choice Help to Level the Playing Field

Christian Basteck, Bettina Klaus () and Dorothea Kuebler
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Dorothea Kübler

Cahiers de Recherches Economiques du Département d'économie from Université de Lausanne, Faculté des HEC, Département d’économie

Abstract: School authorities in the UK and the US advocate the use of lotteries to desegregate schools. We study a school choice mechanism employed in Berlin where a lottery quota is embedded in the immediate acceptance (IA) mechanism, and compare it to the deferred acceptance mechanism (DA) with a lottery quota. In both mechanisms, some seats are allocated based on academic achievement (e.g., grades),while seats in the lottery quota are allocated randomly. We find that,in theory,a lottery quota strengthens truth-telling in DA by eliminating non-truth-telling equilibria. Furthermore, the equilibrium outcome is stable for DA with a lottery but not for IA with a lottery. These predictions are borne out in the experiment. Moreover, the lottery quota leads to more diverse school populations in the experiment, as predicted. Students with the lowest grades profit more from the introduction of the lottery under IA than under DA.

Keywords: School choice; immediate acceptance mechanism; deferred acceptance; mechanism; lotteries; experiment; market design (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C78 C91 D47 D82 I24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 79 pp.
Date: 2021-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-des, nep-edu, nep-exp and nep-ure
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Journal Article: How lotteries in school choice help to level the playing field (2021)
Working Paper: How Lotteries in School Choice Help to Level the Playing Field (2019)
Working Paper: How Lotteries in School Choice Help to Level the Playing Field (2018)
Working Paper: How Lotteries in School Choice Help to Level the Playing Field (2018)
Working Paper: How lotteries in school choice help to level the playing field (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:lau:crdeep:21.09

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