English

The cost of strategy-proofness in school choice

Theoretical Economics 2023-07-28 v6

Abstract

We compare the outcomes of the most prominent strategy-proof and stable algorithm (Deferred Acceptance, DA) and the most prominent strategy-proof and Pareto optimal algorithm (Top Trading Cycles, TTC) to the allocation generated by the rank-minimizing mechanism (RM). While one would expect that RM improves upon both DA and TTC in terms of rank efficiency, the size of the improvement is nonetheless surprising. Moreover, while it is not explicitly designed to do so, RM also significantly improves the placement of the worst-off student. Furthermore, RM generates less justified envy than TTC. We corroborate our findings using data on school admissions in Budapest.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2204.07255,
  title  = {The cost of strategy-proofness in school choice},
  author = {Josue Ortega and Thilo Klein},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2204.07255},
  year   = {2023}
}