A Marriage Market for Economists

Sammanfattning: For a labor market, such as the one for economists, an employer often faces the diffi- culty of distinguishing attainable from unattainable candidates. Offers, rejections and the recruiting process overall is costly, and participants of the market need to choose who to pursue wisely. EconMatch is a site aiming to provide suggestions on what candidate is the best to pursue for a university, based on a matching algorithm and the market’s preferences. Some concerns, however, regarding EconMatch, the algo- rithm it is based on, its performance on the labor market and possibilities for strategic behavior have been expressed. However, the essay shows that potential strategic con- duct does not seem worthwhile because of how the algorithm is constructed, and even less so when considering the non-binding property of the matching. Simulations show that market size seem to have a negative impact on the probability of achieving the highest preference match for candidates. This is likely due to competition and in- creasingly complex combinatorics. However, considering the algorithm in the bigger picture may be more appropriate. This essay proposes to consider EconMatch as a tool for communicating information, rather than a traditional matching assignment, thus, reducing asymmetric information and facilitating credible signaling.