Governance

“Matching in Practice” is an informal research network of researchers interested in matching and assignment practices in education and related labour markets. In particular, the network does not, at this stage, have a legal identity, nor does it benefit from a grant (though members can and do use some of their research money to contribute to the activities of the network).

The network is coordinated by an Executive Committee made of three members, ideally based in three different European countries. The Executive Committee is responsible for identifying conference venues, managing the website and, more generally, for bringing life to the network and ensuring it meets its goals and the needs of the members. Researchers interested in joining the network are encouraged to write to the Executive Committee. Membership is fairly open at this stage, but it does involve a commitment to actively participate and contribute to the activities of the network.

Conference Committee is in charge of soliciting contributions and arranging the scientific program of the biannual workshops that the network organizes. Workshops are hosted by members of the networks, on a rotating basis. The host is responsible for the logistics of the workshop organization and its funding.

Aim and Scope

“Matching in Practice” was created in September 2010 to bring together the growing community of researchers in Europe working on the various aspects of assignment and matching in education and related labour markets, with a view to actively foster the interactions between the different strands of approaches used by these researchers (theory, experiments, analysis of field data, policy / market design) and aggregate expertise about the actual functioning of these markets in Europe.

To this end, the network includes researchers from computer science, economics (economics of education, market design, microeconomic theory, social choice, …) and sociology. Its main activities include the organization of two informal workshops per year, where members can receive feedback on work-in-progress and discuss other relevant developments in methods, data or in the policy arena, and the coordination of a data-collection effort to describe matching practices in Europe. In order to achieve the goals of community building and cross-field fertilization, frequent participation to the activities of the network is encouraged from members.