Abstract
Algorithms play a central role in determining who gets what—and why—in a wide range of allocation problems. In the context of education, school assignment algorithms impact the opportunities and outcomes of millions of students worldwide. As administrative capacity to collect large-scale data and centralize decisions has grown, so has the potential to design better, fairer, and more efficient systems.
In this lecture, we will explore school choice as a case study to illustrate how economic theory, behavioral experiments, rich datasets, and computational tools come together to inform the design of real-world matching algorithms. We will discuss how different designs can lead to vastly different outcomes, how evidence can uncover unintended consequences, and how iterative processes combining theory and empirical work can help create systems that are more transparent, equitable, and effective.
Short BioCaterina Calsamiglia is an ICREA Research Professor at BSC and leader of the Computational Social Sciences group in the CSSH Lab, where she also leads the Welfare and Equity Group. Her work integrates AI and data-intensive solutions into public policy, with a particular focus on market design and education policy. She holds a PhD in Economics from Yale University and conducts research that spans theoretical, experimental, and empirical approaches.
Together with an interdisciplinary team, she has developed Pentabilities, a methodology for fostering socioemotional learning by integrating behavioral feedback collected in classrooms. Between September 2022 and March 2024, she led the design and implementation of four large-scale RCTs in Catalunya, Andalucía, Ceuta, and Melilla. Three were implemented through Fundació Bofill's Suport Educatiu program, and the fourth through Fundesplai's Hedera program.
She is affiliated with the Human Capital and Economic Opportunity group, the Stone Center at the University of Chicago, IZA, CEPR, and JPAL as an invited researcher and senior fellow at EsadeEcPol. Additionally, she collaborate with interdisciplinary initiatives such as Cooperation4Climate and the BESSI team in psychology.