Match Stability with a Costly and Flexible Number of Positions

One of the main goals of two-sided matching mechanisms is to pair two groups of agents in a stable manner. Stability means that no pair of agents has an incentive to deviate from their assigned match. The outcome of such a match can have significant consequences for the participants involved. Most e...

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Main Authors: James Gilmore, David Porter
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-05-01
Series:Games
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4336/16/3/27
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author James Gilmore
David Porter
author_facet James Gilmore
David Porter
author_sort James Gilmore
collection DOAJ
description One of the main goals of two-sided matching mechanisms is to pair two groups of agents in a stable manner. Stability means that no pair of agents has an incentive to deviate from their assigned match. The outcome of such a match can have significant consequences for the participants involved. Most existing research in this field assumes that the quotas of organizations are fixed and externally determined, which may not always be realistic. We introduce the concept of slot stability, which considers the possibility that organizations may want to adjust their quotas after the match process. To address this issue, we propose an algorithm that generates both stable and slot-stable matches by using flexible, endogenous quotas.
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spelling doaj-art-96df5adadd9c4e3ea85e6f5a9b9ec10f2025-08-20T03:24:36ZengMDPI AGGames2073-43362025-05-011632710.3390/g16030027Match Stability with a Costly and Flexible Number of PositionsJames Gilmore0David Porter1Economic Science Institute, Chapman University, Orange, CA 92866, USAEconomic Science Institute, Chapman University, Orange, CA 92866, USAOne of the main goals of two-sided matching mechanisms is to pair two groups of agents in a stable manner. Stability means that no pair of agents has an incentive to deviate from their assigned match. The outcome of such a match can have significant consequences for the participants involved. Most existing research in this field assumes that the quotas of organizations are fixed and externally determined, which may not always be realistic. We introduce the concept of slot stability, which considers the possibility that organizations may want to adjust their quotas after the match process. To address this issue, we propose an algorithm that generates both stable and slot-stable matches by using flexible, endogenous quotas.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4336/16/3/27matchingstabilityquotas
spellingShingle James Gilmore
David Porter
Match Stability with a Costly and Flexible Number of Positions
Games
matching
stability
quotas
title Match Stability with a Costly and Flexible Number of Positions
title_full Match Stability with a Costly and Flexible Number of Positions
title_fullStr Match Stability with a Costly and Flexible Number of Positions
title_full_unstemmed Match Stability with a Costly and Flexible Number of Positions
title_short Match Stability with a Costly and Flexible Number of Positions
title_sort match stability with a costly and flexible number of positions
topic matching
stability
quotas
url https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4336/16/3/27
work_keys_str_mv AT jamesgilmore matchstabilitywithacostlyandflexiblenumberofpositions
AT davidporter matchstabilitywithacostlyandflexiblenumberofpositions