Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/123701 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
WZB Discussion Paper No. SP II 2015-208
Publisher: 
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB), Berlin
Abstract: 
We run a field experiment to test the truth-telling rates of the theoretically strategy-proof Top Trading Cycles mechanism (TTC) under different information conditions. First, we asked first-year economics students enrolled in an introductory microeconomics unit about which topic, among three, they would most like to write an essay on. Most students chose the same favorite topic. Then we used TTC to distribute students equally across the three options. We ran three treatments varying the information the students received about the mechanism. In the first treatment students were given a description of the matching mechanism. In the second they received a description of the strategy-proofness of the mechanism without details of the mechanism. Finally, in the third they were given both pieces of information. We find a significant and positive effect of describing the strategy-proofness on truth-telling rates. On the other hand, describing the matching mechanism has a significant and negative effect on truth-telling rates.
Subjects: 
school choice
matching
field experiment
JEL: 
D47
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
953.79 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.