Date and Time

Friday, April 18th, 2025
17:00 p.m.-18:30 p.m.

Presenter

Dr. Di Feng (Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute (formerly known as the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute))

Title

What makes the difference: deriving characterizations of the deferred acceptance mechanism and the immediate acceptance mechanism from basic properties

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate many-to-one matching problems involving the allocation of indivisible objects (e.g., school seats) to agents (e.g., students) under capacity constraints and exogenously given priorities. Two widely used mechanisms in this context are the Deferred Acceptance mechanism (DA) and the Immediate Acceptance mechanism (IA). We focus on basic properties that align with three standard objectives—efficiency, fairness, and incentives: non-wastefulness, fair treatment of equals, truncation-proofness, and anti-truncation-proofness. Both DA and IA satisfy all these basic properties. We then demonstrate that strengthening only one type of property results in DA or IA being the unique mechanism that satisfies all properties. Put precisely, we show that, given the basic properties we consider, (1) strengthening the basic fairness property to fairness, or the basic incentive properties to strategy-proofness, makes DA the only mechanism that satisfies all properties; and (2) strengthening the basic efficiency property to favoring higher ranks, makes IA the only mechanism that satisfies all properties. Our approach and results highlight the clear distinctions between DA and IA with respect to the three standard objectives. These findings provide valuable insights for practical market design.

Venue

Mid Conference Room (GSBA), Rokko-dai 1st Campus, Building Ⅲ 1F

Language

English

Organized by

Intended Participants

Professors, Graduate students including KIMAP students and Alumni of Kobe University.

How to register for this seminar

Please register at the URL below by Thursday, April 17th, 2025.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScpRTH8nDW2RUu3s2y_euTm79LS5l5zKGwNL2rcaiV-f7knTg/viewform

Remarks

Please apply by Monday, 14th April if you would like to interact with Dr. Di Feng before or after the seminar.