Why is the AEA still using this queuing mechanism to register for housing?

Question

I am amazed every year that *economists* queue up and scramble to register, usually taking the website offline. Seems like if there is any profession where a better mechanism would be adopted it is this one. How about eliciting preferences way before registration opens up? Then all you need is a fair clearing mechanism.

Comments

Hey, this is the American Economic Association. Hold an auction  :-)

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Lump sum redistributing the profits to equalize resources among departments, of course. :-) :-)

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That will run up against non-negativity constraints, precluding attainment of the first-best   :-(

Answer 1

I suspect what happens is that rich schools buy up the in-demand suites at market rates preempting the market. (Any evidence of this?)  Probably the basic answer is that the AEA is glacial at actually making sensible improvements because there is turnover of presidency and they do not have the tech model of fail quickly and learn.   The current system of single-time login and allocation is an embarrassment for a profession that studies efficiency, mechanism design, etc.