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  4. December 2017
  5. The Welfare Effects of Coordinated Assignment: Evidence from the New York City High School Match

The Welfare Effects of Coordinated Assignment: Evidence from the New York City High School Match

  • Atila Abdulkadiroğlu
  • Nikhil Agarwal
  • Parag A. Pathak
American Economic Review
vol. 107, no. 12, December 2017
(pp. 3635-89)
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Abstract

Coordinated single-offer school assignment systems are a popular education reform. We show that uncoordinated offers in NYC's school assignment mechanism generated mismatches. One-third of applicants were unassigned after the main round and later administratively placed at less desirable schools. We evaluate the effects of the new coordinated mechanism based on deferred acceptance using estimated student preferences. The new mechanism achieves 80 percent of the possible gains from a no-choice neighborhood extreme to a utilitarian benchmark. Coordinating offers dominates the effects of further algorithm modifications. Students most likely to be previously administratively assigned experienced the largest gains in welfare and subsequent achievement.

Citation

Abdulkadiroğlu, Atila, Nikhil Agarwal, and Parag A. Pathak. 2017. "The Welfare Effects of Coordinated Assignment: Evidence from the New York City High School Match." American Economic Review, 107 (12): 3635-89. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20151425

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • C78 Bargaining Theory; Matching Theory
  • D82 Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
  • I21 Analysis of Education
  • I28 Education: Government Policy