Thesis advisor: Uzi Segal / This collection of papers examines applications of microeconomic theory to practical problems. More specifically, I identify frictions between theoretical results and agent behavior. I seek to resolve these tensions by either proposing mechanisms to more closely capture the theoretical environment of interest or extending the model to more closely approximate the world as individuals perceive it. In the first chapter, "Compensation without Distortion,'' I propose a new mechanism for compensating subjects in preference elicitation experiments. The motivation for this tool is the theoretical problem of incentive compatibility in decision experiments. A hallmark of experimental economics is the connection between a subject's payment with their actions or decisions, however previous literature has highlighted shortcomings in this link between compensation and methods currently used to elicit beliefs. Specifically, compensating individuals based on choices they make increases reliability, however these payments can themselves distort subjects' preferences, limiting the resulting data's usefulness. I reexamine the source of the underlying theoretical tension, and propose using a stochastic termination mechanism called the "random stopping procedure'' (RSP). I show that the RSP is theoretically able to structurally avoid preference distortions induced by the current state of the art protocols. Changing the underlying context subjects answer questions—by resolving payoff uncertainty immediately after every decision is made—the assumed impossibility of asking multiple questions without creating preference distortions is theoretically resolved. To test this prediction, I conduct an experiment explicitly designed to test the accuracy of data gathered by the RSP against the current best practice for measuring subject preferences. Results show that RSP-elicited preferences more closely match a control group's responses than the alternative. In the second chapter, "School Choice and Class Size Externalities,'' I revisit the many-to-one matching problem of school choice. I focus on the importance of problem definition, and argue that the "standard'' school choice model is insufficiently sensitive to relevant characteristics of student preferences. Motivated by the observation that students care about both the school they attend, and how over- or under-crowded the school is, I extend the problem definition to allow students to report preferences over both schools and cohort sizes. (Cohort size is intended as a generalization of school crowding, relative resources, or other similar school characteristics.) I show that, if students do have preferences over schools and cohort sizes, current mechanisms lose many of their advantageous properties, and are no longer stable, fair, nor non-wasteful. Moreover, I show that current mechanisms no longer necessarily incentivize students to truthfully report their preferences over school orderings. Motivated by the observation that students care about both the school they attend, and how over- or under-crowded the school is, in "School Choice and Class Size Externalities'' I extend the standard school choice problem to incorporate both of these elements. I show that, if students do have preferences over schools and cohort sizes, current mechanisms are no longer stable, fair, nor non-wasteful. In response, I construct an alternative matching mechanism, called the deferred acceptance with voluntary withdrawals (DAwVW) mechanism, which improves on the underlying (unobserved) manipulability of "standard" mechanisms. The DAwVW mechanism is deterministic and terminates, more closely satisfies core desirable matching properties, and can yield substantial efficiency gains compared to mechanisms that do not consider class size. In the third chapter, I provide an overview of the history of decision experiments in economics, describe several of the underlying tensions that motivate my other projects, and identify alternative potential solutions that have been proposed by others to these problems. In this project, I add context to the larger field of experimental economics in which my research is situated. In addition to the mechanisms discussed by prior literature reviews, I incorporate and discuss recently developed payment and elicitation methods, and identify these new approaches' advantages and drawbacks. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

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京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(情報学) / 甲第24933号 / 情博第844号 / 新制||情||141(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院情報学研究科社会情報学専攻 / (主査)教授 伊藤 孝行, 教授 鹿島 久嗣, 教授 岡部 寿男, 阿部 正幸(NTT社会情報研究所) / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Informatics / Kyoto University / DGAM

Ce travail s'inscrit dans l'analyse économique des architectures de marché électrique. Il s'appuie sur un cadre d'analyse modulaire permettant de séparer les problèmes du market design en modules distincts. Il se concentre sur le design du temps réel ayant un rôle clé pour l'électricité. Un modèle d'équilibre à deux étapes a permis d'analyser les deux variantes de design du temps réel : le marché et le mécanisme (utilisant de pénalités). Les simulations numériques ont montré que le design du temps réel n'est pas neutre vis-à-vis de la séquence des marchés d'énergie et de la dynamique concurrentielle. Les designs s'écartant du « marché » provoquent des distorsions, des inefficacités et peuvent créer des barrières à l'entrée. L'ampleur des distorsions est déterminée par la fermeture des marchés forward (gate closure). Cette modélisation a permis aussi de montrer le rôle fondamental de l'intégration entre deux zones en temps réel et l'importance d'une harmonisation adéquate des designs.

Les défis auxquels les systèmes électriques font face actuellement (intégration massive des énergies renouvelables, développement de la production distribuée, réduction des émissions CO2, etc.) donnent lieu à une intuition partagée sur la croissance des besoins en stockage d’électricité. Néanmoins, les investissements en stockage engagés par des acteurs individuels restent à ce jour très faibles, sauf pour la technologie de stockage par pompage-turbinage. Ceci s’explique potentiellement par le fait que l’usage du stockage par un seul acteur ne permet que rarement de recouvrir le coût d’investissement du stockage. En tant qu’actif multifonctionnel, le stockage est capable de fournir de nombreux services à différents acteurs. La façon dont le stockage est utilisé devrait être adaptée afin de permettre une mutualisation du coût d’investissement et des bénéfices parmi différents acteurs dans le paysage dérégulé des systèmes électriques en Europe.La thèse a permis d’étudier les mécanismes efficaces permettant 1) aux acteurs régulés et dérégulés de partager l’utilisation d’une unité du stockage, et 2) à une coordination efficace des utilisations décentralisées du stockage. A cet effet, nous proposons un design de marché qui permet d’agréger les valeurs du stockage en deux dimensions.Premièrement, des valeurs peuvent être agrégées sur plusieurs horizons temporels. Les acteurs peuvent avoir intérêt à décider l’utilisation du stockage à différents moments avant la livraison en temps réel. L’agrégation verticale est obtenue par la superposition des profils d’utilisation décidés à différents horizons temporels. Deuxièmement, les valeurs peuvent être agrégées parmi différents acteurs. Ceci consiste à coupler le stockage avec des marchés organisés de l’électricité. A un horizon donné, l’opérateur du stockage communique ses capacités disponibles à l’opérateur du marché, qui vaviincorporer ces capacités dans le processus de clearing de marché afin de maximiser le bien-être social.La thèse démontre qu’il est possible de faire partager une unité du stockage par des acteurs régulés et dérégulés d’une manière systématique. Des simulations montrent que l’agrégation des valeurs du stockage, de la façon proposé dans la thèse, peut conduire à une augmentation évidente de la rentabilité du stockage. Elles montrent aussi qu’après la clôture de toutes les activités commerciales à un horizon donné, il reste systématiquement des capacités du stockage non-utilisées, qui sont difficilement valorisables par les acteurs dérégulés, mais pourraient être servies par les acteurs régulés. Le mécanisme d’agrégation permet de capturer la valeur de ces capacités, tout en respectant le principe d’ « unbundling » du secteur électrique européen. / The challenges faced by the power systems nowadays (massive integration of intermittent energy sources, development of distributed generation, reduction of CO2 emissions, etc.) give rise to a widespread notion on the growing needs for electric energy storage (EES). In spite of this, little investment on EES, however, has been carried out by individual actors. An exception concerns pumped hydro storage technology, but the development of this technology is highly constrained by the existence of suitable sites in Europe. The lack of investments in EES, despite its general usefulness, is potentially due to the fact that the usage of storage by one individual actor generally could not allow him to recover the high investment costs involved. As a multi-functional asset, EES can provide numerous benefits to different actors. A potential means to promote EES may involve socialising the investment cost and benefits of EES among different actors in the deregulated power systems in Europe.This thesis studies how to create efficient mechanisms to allow 1) all the actors, both regulated and deregulated, to share the use of an EES unit, and 2) an effective coordination on the decentralized usages of storage by different actors. To this aim, we propose a market design that enables the aggregation of the values of EES along two dimensions, namely vertical and horizontal aggregation.Firstly, the values can be aggregated vertically upon several time horizons. Actors may have different needs for EES at different time horizons. The vertical aggregation is achieved by superposing utilisation profiles of EES decided at different moments in time. The compatibility of the different utilisation profiles is ensured by a coordination mechanism. Secondly, the values can also be aggregated horizontally among a large number of actors. The horizontal aggregation consists in coupling EES to the electricityivmarkets. At a given time horizon, the storage operator communicates the available capacities of EES to the market operator, who will incorporate these capacities in the market clearing process to maximise the social welfare.The thesis proves that it is possible for different actors, both regulated and deregulated, to share the use of storage in a systematic way. The simulation results show that the aggregation of values of EES, in the way proposed by the thesis, can lead to higher return on investment. The simulation also show that, after the closure of all commercial activities (at certain time horizon), there are systematically residual capacities of EES which are difficult to be valued by deregulated actors, but can be used by regulated actors. The value of these capacities can be effectively captured in the proposed aggregation mechanism, while respecting the unbundling principle of the European electricity sector.

Le système électrique européen peut être décrit par le concept de système intégré, c'est à dire un réseau interconnecté dont l'organisation est découpée par diverses frontières administratives de nature légale, technique ou marchande. Dans ce contexte, l'amélioration de la coordination de l'opération sur ces frontières internes, pour un ensemble donné d'infrastructures, doit permettre une utilisation plus optimale des ressources disponibles.L'analyse économique de ces coordinations transfrontalières et du processus d'amélioration en cours en Europe en 2012 permet d'une part de tirer les enseignements de cette expérience et d'autre part de soutenir le processus d'amélioration en contribuant à la compréhension des enjeux par les acteurs. Pour cela, l'étude propose tout d'abord une synthèse sur la gestion du système électrique qui définit l'objet d'étude. Puis, le deuxième chapitre détaille une analyse fonctionnelle des mécanismes de coordination. Cette analyse permet de faire le lien avec des aspects techniques qui conditionnent l'organisation économique. Le troisième chapitre porte sur les méthodes d'évaluation des bénéfices, des coûts et des effets redistributifs d'une évolution de la coordination. Les chapitres quatre et cinq abordent ensuite deux angles institutionnels clés. Le premier est le rôle de l'Union Européenne dans l'établissement de règles communes à l'échelle du continent. Le second est la forme institutionnelle de l'engagement des Gestionnaires de Réseau de Transport (GRT) pour le succès de ces mécanismes de coordinations. / The electricity high voltage transmission networks are interconnected over most of the continents but this is not the case of the power system organizations. Indeed, as described with the concept of integrated power system, the organization over these large networks is divided by several kinds of internal borders. In this context, the research object, the cross-border coordination of operation, is a set of coordination arrangements over internal borders between differing regulatory, technical and market designs. These arrangements can include for instance the famous market couplings, some cost-sharing agreements or common security assessments among several other solutions. The existence and improvement of the cross-border coordination of operation can be beneficial to the whole integrated power system. This statement is verified in the European case as in 2012 where several regional and continental coordination arrangements are successfully implemented.In order to benefit from the European experience and contribute to support the European improvement process, this thesis investigates the cross-border coordination of operation in the European case with four angles of study. First, a modular framework is built to describe the existing solutions and the implementation choices from a regulatory point of view. Second, the thesis analyses the tools available to assess the impact of an evolution of the cross-border coordination. Third, the role of the European Union (EU) is described as critical both for the existing arrangements and to support the improvement process. The last angle of study focuses on two dimensions of the economic modes of coordination between transmission system operators.

Suite aux réformes des marchés électriques, la question du market design, c’est-à-dire l’étude des nouveaux marchés destinés à remplacer l’ancien monopole, est devenue centrale dans la littérature économique. Toutefois, les caractéristiques techniques de l’électricité rendent cette tâche complexe et l’intervention des pouvoirs publics est souvent nécessaire pour établir les règles du jeu efficaces que les acteurs de marché devront suivre. Cela explique pourquoi le market design demeure un sujet d’actualité. Cette thèse contribue aux discussions actuelles en étudiant plusieurs architectures de marché à mettre en place afin d’assurer la fiabilité du système électrique de la façon la plus efficace.La fiabilité est d’abord étudiée sous sa dimension de court terme, appelée sûreté. Pour garantir un équilibre en temps réel, l’opérateur du système doit s’assurer de disposer d’un niveau suffisant de réserves: c’est l’objectif du modèle de sûreté. Dans cette thèse, les impacts économiques induits par un changement de modèle de sureté pour le système électrique français sont évalués. Une modélisation de type Agent-Based est développée pour simuler les décisions des acteurs sur plusieurs marchés de court terme. Les résultats montrent que le modèle de sureté français actuel conduit à des coûts inférieurs à ceux du modèle alternatif mis en œuvre dans d’autres pays européens. Le maintien du modèle actuel en France apparait donc justifié.La dimension long terme de la fiabilité, à savoir l’adéquation, est ensuite étudiée. Les performances économiques d’un marché de capacité et d’un mécanisme de réserve stratégique, deux solutions conçues pour résoudre le problème d’adéquation, sont comparées. Afin de considérer la nature cyclique des investissements, ces mécanismes sont étudiés d’un point de vue dynamique par l’intermédiaire d’une modélisation de type System Dynamics. Celle-ci simule les décisions d'investissements et de fermetures prises par les acteurs de marché, en considérant leurs comportements imparfaits. Les principaux résultats montrent que le marché de capacité résout la question de l'adéquation à un coût moindre. / Following power market reforms, market design, i.e. the study of new markets to replace efficiently the previous monopoly, becomes central in the economic literature. However, due to several technical characteristics of electricity, this task is complex. A third party is then required to help design these markets in an efficient way and to set the rules under which private decentralized market players will interact. This complexity explains why market design remains a work in progress. This thesis contributes to the current discussions by giving insights on the most efficient market designs to implement to ensure the reliability of power systems.A first focus is made on the short-term dimension of reliability, i.e. the security of power systems. To maintain a balanced system, the system operator has to ensure the availability of a sufficient level of reserves in real time: this is the aim of the security model. In this thesis, a quantitative assessment of the economic impacts that a transition to a different security model would have for the French power system is carried out. An agent-based modelling is developed to simulate the decisions of profit-maximizing players on several short-term markets. Simulations show that the current French security model results in lower costs than the alternative one implemented in several European countries, and should therefore be maintained for the French power system.A second focus is made on the long-term dimension of reliability, i.e. the adequacy. The economic performances of a capacity market and a strategic reserve mechanism, two mechanisms designed to solve the adequacy issue, are compared. In order to capture the cyclical nature of investments, these mechanisms are studied from a dynamic point of view. To this end, a long-term model is developed based on a System Dynamics approach. It simulates the investment and shutdown decisions made by market players considering their imperfect behaviours. Main results show that the capacity market solves the adequacy issue at a lower cost than the strategic reserve mechanism.

Deploying wind power to a larger extent is one solution to reduce negative environmental impacts of electric power supply. However, various challenges are connected with increasing wind power penetration levels. From the perspective of transmission system operators, this includes balancing of varying as well as - to some extent - uncertain generation levels. From the perspective of power generating companies, changes in the generation mix will affect the market's merit order and, hence, their profits. This thesis focuses on provision and use of flexibility in the Nordic electricity market. First, this thesis studies wind power variations and accuracy of wind power forecasts in Sweden using statistical methods. Even though today’s wind penetration levels are still low in Sweden, power systems and electricity markets have to cope with these characteristics of variations and forecast errors to a larger extent in future. Second, it investigates to which extent an increased exchange and use of flexibility that is available in the intraday time-frame could efficiently facilitate system balancing and whether this would also be profitable from the power generating companies' perspective. Here, a simulation model is developed that reflects important aspects of production planning and trading decisions in the intraday time-frame. In a first case study, it is shown that the benefits of internal rescheduling strongly depend on the costs to adjust production plans in the intraday time-frame as compared to real-time. In a second case study, it becomes evident that trading flexibility in the intraday time-frame can reduce the need for system balancing more efficiently than internal rescheduling within each balance responsible party. Motivated by the positive gains of intraday trading and the challenge of appropriately modelling continuous intraday markets, trading activity and price development on Elbas is investigated. The results provide insights into trading behaviour on a continuous intraday market and show that trading is not always in accordance to the power system's physical situation. To the extent to which better information and adaptations in the market design could improve the market participants' base for trading decisions, policy recommendations and further research questions areas suggested. / Att använda vindkraft i en större utsträckning är en möjlighet att minska elproduktionens negativa miljöpåverkan. Det finns dock också olika utmaningar med stora mängder vindkraft. Från ett systemperspektiv gäller det till exempel att hålla balansen mellan tillförsel och konsumtion av el. Från elproducenternas perspektiv bör vindkraftens påverkan på elmarknaden nämnas eftersom det påverka aktörernas vinster. Avhandlingen titta närmare in i hur man kan få tillgång till mer flexibilitet på produktionssidan. Avhandlingen består av tre delar. För det första undersöks variationer och prognosfel av vindkraft i Sverige med hjälp av statistiska metoder. Även om andel vindkraft hittills är låg i Sverige, behöver elsystemet och elmarknader i framtiden hantera samma egenskaper av själva variationer och prognosfel som idag men i en större utsträckning. För det andra undersöks hur den flexibiliteten som finns i tidshorisonten några timmar innan leveranstimmen kan utnyttjas för att integrera vindkraften på ett sätt som är både fördelaktigt från systemets och från aktörernas perspektiv. Undersökningen sker med hjälp av en simuleringsmodell som omfattar viktiga delar i produktionsplanering och intradayhandel. I en fallstudie uppvisas att vinster av intern omplanering är i högsta grad beroende på kostnadsskillnaden mellan omplanering några timmar innan leveranstimmen och anpassning av körscheman under själva leveranstimmen. Resultat av ytterligare en fallstudie uppvisar att det är betydligt billigare och mer effektivt att använda intradayhandel istället för intern omplanering för att utnyttja den befintliga flexibiliteten och för att reducera obalanser som systemoperatörer annars behöver ta hand om under leveranstimmen. Detta är en anledning till att undersöka handelsmönster på Elbas som är en intradaymarknad med kontinuerlig handel. En annan anledning till den här tredje delen är utmaningarna i att modellera kontinuerlig intradayhandel. Studien beskriver handelsaktiviteten på Elbas och hur priserna utvecklas under handelstiden. Ett resultat är att handeln inte alltid återspeglar den fysiska situationen i elsystemet. I den utsträckningen som ett snabbare informationsflöde och förändringar i marknadsdesignen kunde förbättrar aktörernas underlag för intradayhandel, föreslås förbättringar och öppna forskningsfrågor. / <p>QC 20150911</p> / Elektra 36141: Korttidsplanering av vatten-värmekraftsystem vid stora mängder vindkraft: System-perspektivet

Submitted by Felipe Guimaraes Uchoa (felipe.g.uchoa@gmail.com) on 2015-02-19T15:38:56Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_FelipeUchoa_MPFE_19.02.2014.docx: 155271 bytes, checksum: 623619d1f24dfa627add019a29b984e7 (MD5) / Rejected by Renata de Souza Nascimento (renata.souza@fgv.br), reason: Felipe, O trabalho não está de acordo com as normas da ABNT. Segue abaixo, o que deverá ser alterado: - O arquivo deve estar em PDF e não em Word (conforme a postagem). - Nas páginas onde constam SÃO PAULO 2014, deverá alterar o ano para 2015 (pois a apresentação ocorreu em 2015). - Nas páginas dos Agradecimentos/ Resumo/ Abstract, o texto deve estar alinhado, sem os espaços dos parágrafos. Aguardo as alterações e nova submissão. Att Renata on 2015-02-19T16:16:02Z (GMT) / Submitted by Felipe Guimaraes Uchoa (felipe.g.uchoa@gmail.com) on 2015-02-19T16:28:37Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_FelipeUchoa_MPFE_19 02 2014.pdf: 445064 bytes, checksum: be6196a10fa113b69d2388db5149cc7b (MD5) / Rejected by Renata de Souza Nascimento (renata.souza@fgv.br), reason: Felipe, Falta somente ajustar os textos. Encaminharei por e-mail. Att Renata on 2015-02-19T17:22:15Z (GMT) / Submitted by Felipe Guimaraes Uchoa (felipe.g.uchoa@gmail.com) on 2015-02-19T17:41:56Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_FelipeUchoa_MPFE_19 02 2014.pdf: 445771 bytes, checksum: 7d62e511d073b5de4cf00c2a38d2db77 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Renata de Souza Nascimento (renata.souza@fgv.br) on 2015-02-20T10:11:57Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_FelipeUchoa_MPFE_19 02 2014.pdf: 445771 bytes, checksum: 7d62e511d073b5de4cf00c2a38d2db77 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-02-20T12:06:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_FelipeUchoa_MPFE_19 02 2014.pdf: 445771 bytes, checksum: 7d62e511d073b5de4cf00c2a38d2db77 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-01-20 / Per year, more than R$ 15 billion reais are spent with the statutory sickness benefits issued by the Brazilian National Insurance Institute (Instituto Nacional do Seguro Social, INSS) and the costs related with the whole process. In addition, around 7 million medical examinations are held by the INSS medical examiners in order to grant the benefit, from which 2 million are denied by them. The main objective of this work is to assess the whole process of issuing statutory sickness benefits held by the INSS with a Game Theory approach. Analyzing the game structure of the process and the interactions of both, claimants and examiners, with the INSS and the unwanted incentives generated by the current structure. The claimant has an incentive for requiring the benefit even though he does not fit all the requirements for the benefit to be granted. As a result, the number of exams rise, lowering their quality and eventually making the INSS to issue unnecessary benefits. The examiner faces a high complex task without necessary time to perform it with all the caution required. Besides, once it is mandatory to inform the exam result immediately to the claimant, the examiner may have an incentive for conceiving the benefit even when the claimant does not fit all the requirements needed, given that the time provided to the examiner to analyze the case is too short to take a full evaluation.. Once made the parallel with the Game Theory and the Common Pool Resources (CPR) issue, it is possible to research the literature about mitigating this kind of problems. It is also interesting to perform a research on the Market Design literature. Both have showed positive results in mitigating similar issues and may have successful results with the sickness benefit process. / Por ano são gastos mais de R$ 15 bilhões de reais entre os benefícios de auxílio-saúde emitidos pelo INSS e os custos para viabilizar o processo. São realizadas, em torno de 7 milhões de pericias, das quais mais de 2 milhões tem resultado contrário por parte do médico perito. O objetivo deste trabalho é realizar uma leitura do processo de concessão de benefícios de auxílio-saúde pelo INSS sob a ótica da Teoria dos Jogos, com a análise da estrutura das interações entre segurado e perito com o INSS e os incentivos indesejados resultantes desta estrutura. Sendo que o segurado é incentivado a buscar o benefício mesmo sem ter, de fato, a necessidade. Resultando num aumento na quantidade de perícias realizadas por ano, diminuindo sua qualidade e eventualmente concedendo benefícios desnecessários. O perito, por sua vez, se defronta com uma atividade de alta complexidade e não dispõe do tempo necessário para uma análise cautelosa. Além disso, tem o incentivo a, em momentos de incerteza, conceder o benefício mesmo que o segurado não se enquadre corretamente nos requisitos necessários. Isto pode ocorrer, dentre outros fatores, devido ao tempo disponibilizado ao perito para analisar o caso com a atenção necessária não ser suficiente. Uma vez traçado o paralelo com a Teoria dos Jogos e os problemas de Common Pool Resources (CPR), é feita uma pesquisa nessa literatura em busca de maneiras de mitigar problemas similares ao pesquisado. Este paralelo também traz a possibilidade de pesquisar a literatura de Market Design acerca do redesenho da estrutura de mercados, com intuito de corrigir e desenvolver estes mercados. Estudos recentes apresentaram resultados positivos, sendo indicado, portanto, para trabalhos futuros, a implementação desta metodologia para o processo de concessão de benefícios de auxílio-saúde.

The societal problem regarding the housing shortage has made the housing market inaccessible. With the reduced number of rental apartments and longer housing queues, people face more challenges finding a suitable home. Swapping intermediaries have emerged over the years to facilitate the search process to swap apartments. However, tenants are still struggling to find apartments to swap with. Limited research has been conducted about tenants' experiences and perspectives regarding the swapping process. Through an exploratory approach, this study examines what problems tenants encounter during the swapping process. The research findings indicate several opportunity areas for improving and streamlining the swapping process. The made recommendations were regarding the search process, listing information, and apartment viewings. Further, to create an efficient market, the platform needs to consider thickness, overcome congestion, and make participation safe and simple. / Det samhälleliga problemet gällande bostadsbristen har medfört en oåtkomlig bostadsmarknad. Med minskade antalet hyresrätter samt längre bostadsköer står människor inför större utmaningar att hitta ett passande boende. För att underlätta bytesprocessen av hyresrätter har antalet bytesplattformar ökat under åren. Dock kämpar fortfarande många hyresgäster med att hitta en lägenhet att byta med. Begränsat antal studier har genomförts på hyresgäster gällande deras upplevelser samt perspektiv på själva bytesprocessen. Genom användande av en undersökande metod, undersökte denna studie vilka problem hyresgästerna stöter på under bytesprocessen av hyresrätter. Forskningsresultatet indikerade att flera möjligheter finns för att förbättra och effektivisera bytesprocessen. De rekommendationer som gjordes inkluderade sökprocessen, annonssidan, samt lägenhetsvisningar. Vidare, för att skapa en effektiv bytesmarknad, måste plattformen beakta tjocklek, övervinna trängsel, samt göra användandet säkert och enkelt.