MET Seminar - En Hua Hu (Oxford)

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Title: What makes a matching market congested Authors: Justin Hadad & En Hua Hu Abstract: We study a decentralized matching market where each applicant sends a fixed number of applications, and then firms make one offer. Our game emulates matching markets under time constraints: agents who are unmatched after the round remain unmatched. Congestion arises from two basic market failures: some firms do not receive applications (an issue of coverage), and some applicants receive multiple offers (an issue of collisions). We study how the market size, degree of preference alignment, and number of applications affect congestion. Aligned preferences worsen congestion when there is no possibility to coordinate, and additional applications do not always alleviate congestion; optimal quotas are typically small. Contact: sophie.kreutzkamp@manchester.ac.uk