Aftermarket Frictions and the Cost of Off-Platform Options in Centralized Assignment Mechanisms

Adam Kapor, Mohit Karnani and Christopher Neilson

No 30257, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We study the welfare and human-capital impacts of the configuration of on- and off-platform options in the context of Chile’s centralized higher education platform, leveraging administrative data and two policy changes: an expansion of the number of on-platform slots by approximately 40% and the introduction of a large scholarship program. We first show that more programs’ joining the platform led students to start college sooner and raised the share of students who graduated on time. We then develop a model of college applications, offers, waitlists, and matriculation choices, which we estimate using students’ ranked-ordered applications, on- and off-platform enrollment, and on-time graduation outcomes. When more programs join the platform, welfare increases, and the extent of aftermarket frictions matters less for welfare, enrollment, and graduation rates. High-SES students have greater access to off-platform options, and gains from platform expansion are larger for students from lower-SES backgrounds. Our results indicate that expanding the scope of a higher education platform can have real impacts on welfare and human capital.

JEL-codes: I20 L0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pay
Note: ED IO
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Published as Adam Kapor & Mohit Karnani & Christopher Neilson, 2024. "Aftermarket Frictions and the Cost of Off-Platform Options in Centralized Assignment Mechanisms," Journal of Political Economy, vol 132(7), pages 2346-2395.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w30257.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Aftermarket Frictions and the Cost of Off-Platform Options in Centralized Assignment Mechanisms (2024)
Working Paper: Aftermarket Frictions and the Cost of Off-Platform Options in Centralized Assignment Mechanisms (2022)
Working Paper: Aftermarket Frictions and the Cost of Off-Platform Options in Centralized Assignment Mechanisms (2020)
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:30257

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w30257

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 ().