Unraveling yields inefficient matchings: Evidence from post-season college football bowls

Guillaume R. Fréchette, Alvin E. Roth, M. Utku Ünver

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    Many markets have "unraveled" and experienced inefficient, early, dispersed transactions, and subsequently developed institutions to delay transaction timing. It has previously proved difficult, however, to measure and identify the resulting efficiency gains. Prior to 1992, college football teams were matched for post-season play up to several weeks before the end of the regular season. Since 1992, the market has reorganized to postpone this matching. We show that the matching of teams affects efficiency as measured by the resulting television viewership, and that the reorganization promoted more efficient matching, chiefly as a result of the increased ability of later matching to produce "championship" games.

    Original languageEnglish (US)
    Pages (from-to)967-982
    Number of pages16
    JournalRAND Journal of Economics
    Volume38
    Issue number4
    DOIs
    StatePublished - 2007

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Economics and Econometrics

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