The Missing Middle – How Market Design Gets Built for the Public Sector | with Thilo Klein
About this episode
Thilo Klein discusses the challenges and developments in daycare allocation in Germany through the lens of market design and matching theory.
In this episode, we speak with Thilo Klein about daycare allocation in Germany – a problem that is still mostly run by uncoordinated offers, even though it is well understood in matching theory. The gap isn't theory; it's the missing layer that turns academic mechanisms into systems municipalities can actually run. Thilo Klein traces how that layer is now being built – through years of research, an open-source experiment that taught hard lessons, and a spin-out. A conversation about market design where it lands. Thilo Klein is Professor of Quantitative Economics at Pforzheim Business School and a senior researcher at ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research. He is also the co-founder of MatchingTools, a company that develops software for real-world matching problems, including KitaMatch, a platform for daycare allocation. Learn more at https://matchingtools.de .
People in this episode
Guest: Thilo Klein
Topics covered
- market design
- daycare allocation
- matching theory
- public sector
- economic research
Keywords
- daycare
- allocation
- market design
- matching theory
- public sector
- economic research
- Germany
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Pforzheim Business School, ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research, MatchingTools
Products: KitaMatch
Places: Germany
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