Do you like me enough? The impact of restricting preferences ranking in a university matching process

• Nicolás Figueroa ^[1] ; Jeanne Lafortune ^[1] ; Alejandro Saenz ^[1]
  1. [1] Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

     Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

     Santiago, Chile

     
• Localización: Documentos de Trabajo ( Instituto de Economía PUC ), ISSN-e 0717-7593, Nº. 518, 2018, págs. 1-50
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This paper studies, theoretically and empirically, the impact of imposing preferences-on-preferences (POP) within the context of a deferred-acceptance matching process with uncertainty. Theoretically, this type of rules make students misrepresent their preferences to secure a spot in a POP program, particularly when uncertainty is large. Applicants to Chilean universities responded as predicted by our model to a 2003 policy where one of the main university, UChile, imposed POP and then to a change in the entrance exam, increasing uncertainty. We show that not only were applications altered but eventual outcomes and welfare as well, particularly with higher uncertainty.