Code for "Heterogeneous Beliefs and School Choice Mechanisms"

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Adam Kapor, Princeton University; Christopher Neilson, Princeton University; Seth Zimmerman, University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Version:  View help for Version V1

Name File Type Size Last Modified
  code 11/15/2019 12:42:AM
README.pdf application/pdf 34.7 KB 11/14/2019 07:33:PM

Project Citation: 

Kapor, Adam, Neilson, Christopher, and Zimmerman, Seth. Code for “Heterogeneous Beliefs and School Choice Mechanisms” . Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2020. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2020-04-15. https://doi.org/10.3886/E111583V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary This paper studies how welfare outcomes in centralized school choice depend on the assignment mechanism when participants are not fully informed. Using a survey of school choice participants in a strategic setting, we show that beliefs about admissions chances diff er from rational expectations values and predict choice behavior. To quantify the welfare costs of belief errors, we estimate a model of school choice that incorporates subjective beliefs. We evaluate the equilibrium eff ects of switching to a strategy-proof deferred acceptance algorithm, and of improving households' belief accuracy. We find that a switch to truthful reporting in the DA mechanism off ers welfare improvements over the baseline given the belief errors we observe in the data, but that an analyst who assumed families had accurate beliefs would have reached the opposite conclusion.


Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms School Choice
JEL Classification:  View help for JEL Classification
      D47 Market Design
      I20 General
      D47
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage New Haven, CT
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 2015 – 2017
Collection Date(s):  View help for Collection Date(s) 2015 – 2017
Universe:  View help for Universe
This is a study of actual and potential participants in high school choice in New Haven, CT.
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) program source code

Methodology

Sampling:  View help for Sampling This study examines the population of New Haven resident rising ninth graders (and their households) in the New Haven public school system. Please see text of paper for sampling details.
Data Source:  View help for Data Source
The main data sources for this project are administrative records of choice participation and school enrollment for the sample population and household survey data for a subset of this population.
Collection Mode(s):  View help for Collection Mode(s) mixed mode
Scales:  View help for Scales n/a
Weights:  View help for Weights n/a
Unit(s) of Observation:  View help for Unit(s) of Observation Students/households and schools
Geographic Unit:  View help for Geographic Unit n/a

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Published Versions

V1 [2020-04-15]

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