Research library Matching and routing
When Strengths Multiply, Pair Like With Like.
Gary Becker modeled marriage as a market. His result: when partners make each other more productive, the most total output comes from pairing the best with the best.
Gary S. Becker, 1973
Expected revenue from the same two reps and two leads, $ thousands
What he was looking at
Gary Becker, the Chicago economist who took economic thinking into discrimination, crime and the family, treated marriage as a market:
“since many men and women compete as they seek mates, a market in marriages can be presumed to exist” Becker, NBER reprint (1974), p. 300
In his model a household “produces” things like children and companionship from time and goods, and people sort into the pairings that produce the most in total.
What he found
Whether like should pair with like depends on how the two partners’ traits combine:
“the association of likes is optimal when traits are complements and the association of unlikes is optimal when they are substitutes” p. 312
Traits are complements when each makes the other more valuable. Then the total is highest when the best pair with the best, which economists call positive assortative matching. (Becker spelled it “assortive.”) Traits are substitutes when one can stand in for the other. Then mixing wins. The paper notes that people tend to marry partners like themselves in education, intelligence and height, while wage rates tend to pair the other way.
The work wasn’t popular at first. In his Nobel autobiography Becker wrote that his work was long “either ignored or strongly disliked by most of the leading economists,” and that “I was considered way out and perhaps not really an economist.” He won the prize in 1992.
Later work added a caution: when finding a match takes time and effort, the pull toward best-with-best can weaken.
What it means
It’s a question you can ask of any pairing: do the two sides multiply each other, or stand in for each other? If they multiply, sorting the best together produces more from exactly the same people.
Where it shows up in a revenue team
- Reps and leads usually multiply. Expected revenue is close rate times deal value, so a great rep is worth most on a great lead. That’s the chart above.
- Round-robin and “next available” routing mix them on purpose, and give up the gain.
- Check for substitutes. If your best reps add the most on hard, small deals, mixing might win. Your own data can tell you which you have.
- Capacity matters. Best-with-best only works if the best reps have room for the best leads when they arrive.