Lucky by Design: The Hidden Economics You Need to Get More of What You Want

If the market offered these desirable resources free of charge to whoever wanted them, there would undoubtedly be more people asking for fancy apartments, vacations, dinners, and personal trainers than were available to give out. For an allocation mechanism to be easy, it must not put too much of a burden on the market participants trying to use it to get what they want. But when lotteries are run multiple times, they can be designed to achieve more ex-post equity by giving those who have been unlucky in the past a higher chance of success in the future. By taking extra time to choose between two offers, the star student is making the market work less well for others, who may end up accepting a less desirable option before the preferred spot opens up (when the star finally decides to turn it down).