Market structure and dynamics

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract
This thesis consists of three self-contained essays that investigate the algebraic structure of matching markets and the stabilization dynamics in decentralized markets. Chapter 2 is based on Wu and Roth (2018). It studies envy-free matchings that naturally arise from workers retiring or companies expanding. We show that the set of envy-free matchings forms a lattice that has a Conway-like join, but not a Conway-like meet. Furthermore, a job hopping process in which companies make offers to their favorite blocking workers, and workers accept their favorite offers, producing a sequence of vacancy chains, is a Tarski operator on this lattice. The fixed points of this Tarski operator correspond to the set of stable matchings; and the steady state matching starting from any given initial state is derived analytically. Chapter 3 is based on Wu (2020). The goal of this chapter, is to provide a systematic approach for analyzing entering classes in the college admissions model. When dealing with a many-to-one matching model, we often convert it into a one-to-one matching problem by assigning each seat of a college to a single student, instead of matching each college to multiple students. The preferences in this new model are significantly correlated and severely restrict the possible changes to entering classes. Through the so-called "rotations" that correspond to the join-irreducible elements in the lattice of stable matchings, we present a unified treatment for several results on entering classes, including the famous "Rural Hospital Theorem". We also show that, the least preferred student in an entering class appears to play a very interesting role. For example, each entering class can be completely characterized by its worst student. Chapter 4 is based on Gu, Roth, and Wu (2020). The motivating question is that, how come some black markets, such as the market for hitmen are well-regulated, but many others like the market for drugs are far from being under our control, even though we try very hard to eliminate them. To understand this, we build a three-dimensional discrete time Markov chain to study how black markets evolve over time, focusing on social repugnance and search frictions. We borrow tools from Markov jump processes, random walks, exponential martingales and optional sampling theory to analyze both the steady state limit and the realizations along the way. In the first part of the chapter, we identify conditions that lead to market survival or extinction. And the second part studies speed of convergence. We show that if a market is going to die eventually, then it dies exponentially fast. This further implies if a market has survived for a long time, then it is likely to survive forever

Description

Type of resource text
Form electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource
Extent 1 online resource
Place California
Place [Stanford, California]
Publisher [Stanford University]
Copyright date 2020; ©2020
Publication date 2020; 2020
Issuance monographic
Language English

Creators/Contributors

Author Wu, Qingyun, (Researcher in game theory and market design)
Degree supervisor Roth, Alvin E, 1951-
Thesis advisor Roth, Alvin E, 1951-
Thesis advisor Ashlagi, Itai
Thesis advisor Kojima, Fuhito
Degree committee member Ashlagi, Itai
Degree committee member Kojima, Fuhito
Associated with Stanford University, Department of Economics.

Subjects

Genre Theses
Genre Text

Bibliographic information

Statement of responsibility Qingyun Wu
Note Submitted to the Department of Economics
Thesis Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2020
Location electronic resource

Access conditions

Copyright
© 2020 by Qingyun Wu
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).

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