The effectiveness of top-down advice in strategy-proof mechanisms: A field experiment

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_344BA97F9493
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Title
The effectiveness of top-down advice in strategy-proof mechanisms: A field experiment
Journal
European Economic Review
Author(s)
Guillen P., Hakimov R.
ISSN
0014-2921
Publication state
Published
Issued date
01/2018
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
101
Pages
505-511
Language
english
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 property 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 negative effect on truth-telling.
Keywords
Economics and Econometrics, Finance
Web of science
Create date
01/11/2018 12:39
Last modification date
20/08/2019 14:20
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