Three Essays In Applied Economics

The second essay is "Falling Through the Cracks". We present two different models which show that when there is insufficient time for colleges to make offers and students to review these offers, that the resulting match is not only inefficient but that it is possible for a student whose quality first order stochastically dominates another student's quality to be matched less frequently. Market congestion causes this student to "fall through the cracks" of the market. Market interventions that improve the efficiency of the congested market and ameliorate the problem of falling through the cracks are considered.