Outcome (game theory)

Actuarial science

Statistics

Choice set

Microeconomics

Coin flipping

Social choice theory

Arrow

Economics

Set (abstract data type)

Computer science

Management science

Neoclassical economics

Keynesian economics

Operations research

Mathematics

Decision maker

Econometrics

Mathematical economics

Matching (statistics)

Programming language

Journal of Public Economics

We empirically investigate the possibility that a decision maker prefers to avoid making a decision and instead delegates it to an external device, e.g., a coin flip. A large data set from the centralized clearinghouse for university admissions in Germany shows a choice pattern of applicants that is consistent with coin flipping and that entails substantial consequences for the matching outcome. In a series of experiments capturing the relevant features of university choice, participants often choose lotteries between allocations rather than certain allocations. This contradicts most theories of choice such as expected utility. A survey among university applicants links their choices to the experiments and confirms that the choice of random allocations is intentional

Flipping a coin: Evidence from university applications