Top of the Batch: Interviews and the Match

Echenique, Federico and González, Ruy and Wilson, Alistair J. and Yariv, Leeat (2022) Top of the Batch: Interviews and the Match. American Economic Review: Insights, 4 (2). pp. 223-238. ISSN 2640-205X. doi:10.1257/aeri.20200800. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20210304-084112774

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Abstract

Most doctors in the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) match with one of their most preferred internship programs. However, surveys indicate doctors' preferences are similar, suggesting a puzzle: how can so many doctors match with their top choices when positions are scarce? We provide one possible explanation. We show that the patterns in the NRMP data may be an artifact of the interview process that precedes the match. Our study highlights the importance of understanding market interactions occurring before and after a matching clearinghouse. It casts doubts on analyses of clearinghouses that take reported preferences at face value.

Item Type:

Article

Related URLs:

URL	URL Type	Description
https://doi.org/10.1257/aeri.20200800	DOI	Article
https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.05323	arXiv	Discussion Paper
https://doi.org/10.3886/E141541V1	DOI	Data/Code

ORCID:

Author	ORCID
Echenique, Federico	0000-0002-1567-6770
Wilson, Alistair J.	0000-0001-8118-2376

Additional Information:

© 2022 American Economic Association. Dirk Bergemann was coeditor for this article. Echenique gratefully acknowledges the support of NSF SES-1558757 and CNS-1518941. Yariv gratefully acknowledges the support of NSF grant SES-1629613. Computations presented here were supported by resources provided by the University of Pittsburgh Center for Research Computing and the Caltech High Performance Cluster (partially supported by a grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation). Detailed comments from SangMok Lee, Juan Pereyra, the coeditor, and four anonymous reviewers were very helpful in revising and improving the paper. A suggestion from SangMok Lee allowed us to generalize our main result. Code and simulations are provided at Echenique et al. (2021).

Funders:

Funding Agency	Grant Number
NSF	SES-1558757
NSF	CNS-1518941
NSF	SES-1629613
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation	UNSPECIFIED

Subject Keywords:

NRMP, Deferred acceptance, Interviews, First-rank matches

Issue or Number:

Classification Code:

JEL: C78, I11, I18, J44

DOI:

10.1257/aeri.20200800

Record Number:

CaltechAUTHORS:20210304-084112774

Persistent URL:

https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20210304-084112774

Official Citation:

Echenique, Federico, Ruy González, Alistair J. Wilson, and Leeat Yariv. 2022. "Top of the Batch: Interviews and the Match." American Economic Review: Insights, 4 (2): 223-38. DOI: 10.1257/aeri.20200800

Usage Policy:

No commercial reproduction, distribution, display or performance rights in this work are provided.

ID Code:

108305

Collection:

CaltechAUTHORS

Deposited By:

Tony Diaz

Deposited On:

04 Mar 2021 21:38

Last Modified:

14 Jul 2022 20:13

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