School Admissions Reform in Chicago and England: Comparing Mechanisms by Their Vulnerability to Manipulation / Parag A. Pathak, Tayfun Sönmez.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pathak, Parag A.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Sönmez, Tayfun.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w16783.

NBER working paper series no. w16783

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

School Admissions Reform in Chicago and England

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2011.

Summary:

In Fall 2009, officials from Chicago Public Schools changed their assignment mechanism for coveted spots at selective college preparatory high schools midstream. After asking about 14,000 applicants to submit their preferences for schools under one mechanism, the district asked them re-submit their preferences under a new mechanism. Officials were concerned that "high-scoring kids were being rejected simply because of the order in which they listed their college prep preferences" under the abandoned mechanism. What is somewhat puzzling is that the new mechanism is also manipulable. This paper introduces a method to compare mechanisms based on their vulnerability to manipulation. Under our notion, the old mechanism is more manipulable than the new Chicago mechanism. Indeed, the old Chicago mechanism is at least as manipulable as any other plausible mechanism. A number of similar transitions between mechanisms took place in England after the widely popular Boston mechanism was ruled illegal in 2007. Our approach provides support for these and other recent policy changes involving matching mechanisms.

Notes:

Print version record

February 2011.