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American Economic Review Vol. 107 No. 5 2017

Policy Analysis in Matching Markets

Nikhil Agarwal

Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02142 and NBER (e-mail: )

open access

Abstract

Price and quantity interventions intended to affect assignments are common in many labor and education markets (e.g., financial aid, quotas). This article discusses an empirical framework, based on the theory of stable matching, that is suitable for policy analysis while accounting for the presence of equilibrium sorting. It then compares financial incentives and supply interventions for encouraging the training of family medicine residents in rural America. Due to equilibrium effects, the primary effect of financial incentives is to increase the quality, not numbers, of residents in rural programs, while quantity regulations directly affect numbers without adversely affecting quality.

DOI
10.1257/aer.p20171112
Volume
107
Issue
5
Pages
246-250
Language
en
Sources
openalex crossref

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