Chinese College Admissions and School Choice Reforms: An Experimental Study∗

Within the last decade, many Chinese provinces have transitioned from a ‘sequential’ to a ‘parallel’ college admissions mechanisms. Inspired by this natural experiment, we evaluate the sequential (immediate acceptance), parallel, and deferred acceptance mechanisms in the laboratory, treating each mechanism as a special case in a nested parametric family of mechanisms. We find that participants are most likely to reveal their preferences truthfully under the deferred acceptance mechanism, followed by the parallel and then the immediate acceptance mechanisms. While stability comparisons also follow the same order, efficiency comparisons vary across environments. These results confirm systematic changes in properties as the parameter of “tentativeness” varies and helps explain the recent reforms in Chinese college admissions and school choice.