Two-Sided Matching: A Study in Game-Theoretic Modeling and Analysis

Econometric Society Monographs

by Alvin E. Roth, Marilda A. Oliveira Sotomayor

Two-sided matching provides a model of search processes such as those between firms and workers in labor markets or between buyers and sellers in auctions. This book gives a comprehensive account of recent results concerning the game-theoretic analysis of two-sided matching. The focus of the book is on the stability of outcomes, on the incentives that different rules of organization give to agents, and on the constraints that these incentives impose on the ways such markets can be organized. The results for this wide range of related models and matching situations help clarify which conclusions depend on particular modeling assumptions and market conditions, and which are robust over a wide range of conditions.

Genres: Economics, Technical

282 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Alvin Elliot Roth (born December 18, 1951) is an American academician personality, he is the Craig and Susan McCaw professor of economics at Stanford University and the Gund professor of economics and business administration emeritus at Harvard University.

Roth has made significant contributions to the fields of game theory, market design and experimental economics, and is known for his emphasis on applying economic theory to solutions for "real-world" problems.

In 2012, he won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences jointly with Lloyd Shapley "for the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design".

Reviews

[Brittany · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved reading this book. It kept me on the edge of my seat. Fantastic discussion of two-sided matching.

[Helen DeWitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Could helpfully have made use of information design. Extremely enlightening but oddly chilling: treats 2-sided marriage markets (where man and woman are free to remain single) as on a par (wrt freedom of participants) with 3-sided matchings, man, woman, child. I think we can agree the world would look rather different if children had any choice at all in the parents with whom they were matched, or, for that matter, freedom to have none rather than any of those from a pool of possibilities.

[Robert Giambo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only if you like advanced math.