In college admissions, standardized entrance exams typically consist of main tests and optional subject tests. When a college waives related subject tests, its applicant pool expands, but applicants' specific aptitude may decline. This paper analyzes colleges' strategies in a centralized...

The PhD labor market is unique: only doctoral graduates can become professors. Moreover, professors and doctoral students both contribute to knowledge production, which has a spillover effect on labor productivity. However, pursuing a doctoral degree faces an opportunity cost of not working in...

The PhD labor market is unique: only doctoral graduates can become professors. Moreover, professors and doctoral students both contribute to knowledge production, which has a spillover effect on labor productivity. However, pursuing a doctoral degree faces an opportunity cost of not working in...

We analyse the allocation of face masks with the goal of minimizing mortality during a pandemic through airborne transmission. When the initial distribution of masks is private information, the optimal allocation achieved by a sophisticated mechanism in most cases maximizes the coverage rate by...

We present a college admissions model in which schools could gain from limiting students’ application portfolios, and derive conditions that a lower ranked school can attract better students by using such strategy. We then test the model with conflictions of entrance examination dates among...

We develop a decentralized two-sided matching model with an imperfect screening device, the entrance examination, to analyze the choice of examination dates by schools. In most cases, the second best school cannot attract better students by using a conflicting strategy on the same examination...