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Market design · School choice · Economic theory · Lab experiments

Josué Ortega

I study the efficiency cost of requiring fairness or strategy-proofness in resource allocation algorithms.
I'm particularly interested in their theoretical performance in random markets and their robustness to mistakes in the lab.
I am on the 2026/2027 academic job market.

Senior Lecturer · Queen's University Belfast Associate Editor · European Economic Review
CV Research Statement Teaching Statement

Published in Theoretical Economics, JPE Micro, Games and Economic Behavior, Journal of Mathematical Economics and Social Choice and Welfare

Featured by MIT Technology Review, Marginal Revolution, BBC Radio 4, The Economist, Financial Times, & Forbes

Current research

Working Papers

  1. 7
  2. 6
  3. 5
  4. 4
  5. 3
  6. 2
  7. 1

    To be submitted

    The Remarkable Value of Ordinal Efficiency

    With Geng Zhao

Peer-reviewed work

Publications

Selected publications

  1. Journal of Political Economy: MicroeconomicsWhat Pareto-Efficiency Adjustments Cannot Fix

    With Gabriel Ziegler, R. Pablo Arribillaga, and Geng Zhao (2026)

  2. Theoretical EconomicsThe Large and Likely Inefficiency of Stable Matching Mechanisms

    With Gabriel Ziegler, R. Pablo Arribillaga, and Geng Zhao (2026)

  3. Games and Economic BehaviorSchool Choice with Independent versus Consolidated Districts

    With Thilo Klein and Robert Aue (2024)

  4. Games and Economic BehaviorThe Cost of Strategy-Proofness in School Choice

    With Thilo Klein (2023)
    -> extended abstract in the Matching under Preferences workshop

  5. Games and Economic BehaviorFair Cake-Cutting in Practice

    With Maria Kyropoulou and Erel Segal-Halevi (2022)
    -> extended abstract in the Conference on Economics and Computation

Other publications

  1. 8
  2. 7
    The Distribution of Envy in Matching Markets

    Economics Letters · with Gabriel Ziegler, R. Pablo Arribillaga, and Geng Zhao

  3. 6
    Obvious Manipulations in Cake-Cutting

    Social Choice and Welfare · with Erel Segal-Halevi

  4. 5
    On the Integration of Shapley–Scarf Housing Markets

    Journal of Mathematical Economics · with Kriti Manocha and Rajnish Kumar
    -> extended abstract in the Symposium of Algorithmic Game Theory

  5. 4
    Efficiency and Fairness in Cake-Cutting with Single-Peaked Preferences

    Economics Letters · with Bhavook Bhardwaj and Rajnish Kumar

  6. 3
  7. 2
  8. 1
    Social Integration in Two-Sided Matching Markets

    Journal of Mathematical Economics

Academic profile

Service
and teaching

Service

  • Board of Directors, Irish Economic Association
  • Programme committees: Conference on Economics and Computation, since 2023
  • Programme committees: Matching under Preferences workshop, since 2022
  • Co-Chair, Irish Economic Theory Network

Funding

  • ESRC Impact Acceleration
  • British Academy Small Research Grant (x2)
  • Marie Curie Seal of Excellence
  • Leibniz Association projects, co-PI

Current Teaching

  • Mathematics for Economics
  • Economics of Networks and Institutions

Refeereing

  • Economics: Econometrica, Theoretical Economics, Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of Political Economy: Microeconomics, American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, Games and Economic Behavior, European Economic Review, Journal of Mathematical Economics, Social Choice and Welfare, Economics Letters, International Journal of Game Theory, Economic Inquiry, Theory and Decision, Mathematical Social Sciences, Review of Economic Design, Journal of Demographic Economics.
  • Interdisciplinary: Management Science, Operations Research, Stochastic Systems, Social Networks, Social Identities.

Contact

j.ortega@qub.ac.uk

Queen's Business School
Riddel Hall
185 Stranmillis Rd
Belfast BT9 5EE
United Kingdom