No One Likes To Be Second Choice

Abstract A decision-maker wishes to fill a vacancy with a fixed wage. Candidates who are more valuable to the decision maker are less likely to be available. The candidates suffer a disutility from filling the position when they are ranked low on the decision-maker's preference list. However, the decision-maker's preferences are his private information. Therefore, the candidates infer the decision-maker's preference list from information revealed by the number of failed offers. I explore the adverse effect of the social component in the candidates’ preferences on the decision maker's ability to recruit a suitable candidate.