Matching in Decentralized Markets

匹配市场在经济中发挥着重要作用。 他们决定了各种各样的结果，比如哪个学生上哪个大学，谁得到什么工作，谁买什么房子。 最近关于市场匹配理论的研究对市场设计和市场失灵的修复都很有用。 然而，这项工作的大部分集中在设计和分析集中匹配市场。 许多配对市场并不是完全集中的;例如，美国的大学录取决定是由每个机构自己做出的。 此外，几乎所有的集中式匹配市场都是由参与者匹配的分散机会所决定的。 该奖项资助了这些去中心化市场的博弈论研究，以及实验室实验和实地研究，以确定决定去中心化市场结果的关键因素。实地研究使用新开发的理论分析一个独特的数据集，追踪特定收养机构将收养父母与国内生母匹配的方式。 目的是利用这些数据更好地了解养父母和生母对潜在匹配的偏好。 更广泛的影响：理论和实验将为改进匹配市场的设计提供有用的工具。 这项实地研究为寻求改善国家收养和寄养政策的儿童倡导者提供了重要信息。

Matching markets have an important role in the economy. They determine such varied outcomes as which student goes to which college, who gets what job, and who buys what house. Recent work on the theory of matching markets has been useful to the design of markets as well as for the repair of market failures. Much of this work, however, has focused on the design and analysis of centralized matching markets. Many matching markets are not fully centralized; for example, college admissions decisions in the United States are made by each individual institution on its own. Furthermore, almost all of the centralized matching marekts are preceeded by decentralized opportunities for participants to match. This award funds research on the game theory of these decentralized markets as well as lab experiments and a field study to identify the crucial elements that determine decentralized market outcomes.The field study uses the newly developed theory to analyze a unique data set tracing the way a specific adoption agency matched adopting parents to domestic birth mothers. The goal is to use these data to better understand the preferences of adoptive parents and birth mothers towards potential matches. Broader Impacts: The theory and experiments will provide useful tools for improving the design of matching markets. The field study gives crucial information for child advocates who are seeking to improve state-level policy towards adoption and foster care.