The Role of Admission Probabilities in the Deferred Acceptance Mechanism: An Experimental Study

ABSTRACT Although students theoretically need not consider admission probabilities under strategy‐proof mechanisms in school choice problems, our study reveals a significant correlation between students' applications and their beliefs about admission probabilities in the deferred acceptance mechanism. Specifically, students believe they would have a higher probability of matching with the most preferred school if they rank it higher in the application list. Additionally, students tend to lower the rank of the most preferred school if they believe they have too low a probability of matching with it when reporting their true preferences. Students seem to give up the slim chances to be admitted to their most preferred schools and increase the probabilities of matching with the first listed schools in their application lists. Our findings contribute to understanding students' non‐truthful behavior in strategy‐proof mechanisms.