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Al Roth

@alroth.bsky.social

3.6K followers 169 following 871 posts

My market design blog: marketdesigner.blogspot.com Forthcoming in May: Moral Economics www.amazon.com/Moral-Economics-Pros…

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Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 11h

Canada has reversed its plan to expand access to medical aid in dying to people with only psychiatric illnesses, after a long controversy. But Canada has expanded access to allow advanced commitments. #econsky #Canada #medicine marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/10/cana...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

Canada tweaks its Medical Aid in Dying law

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Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Here’s an interview with Harvard Professor Sarah Richardson about her concerns about menstrual tracking apps. She has doubts both about whether they give useful advice, and about the low or absent guardrails on the data they generate. #econsky #privacy marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/10/priv...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

Privacy, and menstrual tracking apps

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Thank you:)

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

The Econometric society welcomes 30 new Fellows #econsky #academicsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/10/cong...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

Congratulations to the new Fellows of the Econometric Society

Congratulations to these 30 new Fellows of the Econometric Society, who were announced yesterday.

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Semmelweis University announces the first 3-pair kidney exchange in Hungary. #econsky #hungary #medicine marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/10/firs...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

First Hungarian 3-way kidney exchange

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Here's a controversial market with something for everyone to argue about: organ donation after euthanasia, including psychiatric patients, in the Netherlands. 100 cases. #econsky #netherlands #medicine marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/10/the-...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

The first 100 cases of organ donation after euthanasia in the Netherlands

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Moral Economics has been translated into Portuguese in Brazil, as Economia moral #econsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/10/mora...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

Moral Economics in Portuguese

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

This week (and next) will hatch a new batch of Nobel laureates. From Stanford and Harvard, here are some thoughts from (among others) Paul Milgrom and Claudia Goldin. #econsky #academicsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/10/post...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

Post-Nobel reflections by recent winners (on the eve of a new batch:).“Even my teacher has heard of that prize!”

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

TIME100 Next 2026: The World's Most Influential Rising Stars: Adrien Bilal #econsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/10/time...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

Time magazine celebrates my Stanford colleague Adrien Bilal

I post market design related news and items about repugnant markets. See my Stanford profile. I have a 2026 book : Moral Economics The subtitle is "From Prostitution to Organ Sales, What Controversial Transactions Reveal About How Markets Work."

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

On what would have been his 96th birthday, a hybrid (in person and online) conference in honor of the late Reinhard Selten. Poznań, 5 October #econsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/10/inte...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

International Workshop on Bounded Rationality In honour of Professor Reinhard Selten. Poznań, 5 October 2026

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Singapore is rolling out a dating app, initially as "A pilot for public officers only." It infers preferences from questionnaire responses, and uses the deferred acceptance algorithm to make one match per participant in each match run. #econsky #singapore marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/10/firs...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

First Date: Singapore's government dating app

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The NY Times has a story about the complicated life and busy career of NYU transplant surgeon Bob Montgomery, who is also a transplant recipient. #medicine marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/09/bob-...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

Bob Montgomery, transplant surgeon and transplant recipient, in the NYT

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Here's the announcement of a new prize, initially to be awarded for work in the social sciences, reflecting the fact that social science can be politically contentious. The Carob Trust Prize for Academic Courage #econsky #academicsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/09/the-...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

The Carob Trust Prize for Academic Courage: An award for scientists who overcome unjustified attacks on their work

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This headline already conveys a lot about the economics of tradeoffs: “Ukraine weighs legalizing pornography to raise tax revenue and buy drones” #econsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/09/ukra...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

Ukraine weighs legalizing pornography to raise tax revenue and buy drones

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The new English language journal Madina: Journal of Islamic Law has a literature review of the Iranian kidney market. (It only reviewed papers published in English.) Its conclusion is that the market aligns with the goals of Islamic law. #econsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/09/iran...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

Iran's kidney market, reviewed in Al-Madina: Journal of Islamic Law

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Affordability

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

“We conduct research in countries across the globe on organ buying, selling, the organisation of illegal transplants and law enforcement responses. We also explore alternative measures such as allowing financial rewards for organ donation.” #econsky #crime marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/09/orga...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

Organ trafficking research

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The hosts of the podcast Behavioral Grooves open by chatting about heroin and hitmen, followed by a discussion among the three of us #econsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/09/hero...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

Heroin, hitmen and black markets on Behavioral Grooves

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Here's the first commercial translation I've seen of my book Moral Economics. The title in Korean is 금지된 거래의 경제학도덕과 시장은 공존할 수 있는가, The Economics of Forbidden Transactions: Can Morality and Markets Coexist? #econsky #korea #academicsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/09/mora...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

Moral Economics in Korean

I post market design related news and items about repugnant markets. See my Stanford profile. I have a 2026 book : Moral Economics The subtitle is "From Prostitution to Organ Sales, What Controversial Transactions Reveal About How Markets Work."

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The secret of building a good school is to have good students. that can lead to conflicts between the desire to build better school systems to serve children in the aggregate, and the desire to put your child in the best school for him or her. #econsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/09/scho...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

School choice: peer effects and social justice

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

She’s a role model…

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

That there is life after tenure-denial is robustly proclaimed and manifested by Emily Oster, in an interview by Mary Childs on her podcast Mary in America. #econsky #academicsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/09/ther...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

There's life after tenure denial: Emily Oster (on Mary in America)

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Yan: Congratulations again, and all the best for the new year (5787!)

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Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Yan Chen wins the 2026 Market Design Impact Award "For pioneering behavioral market design-combining theory, digital experiments, and large-scale field experiments-with lasting impact on the practice of market design” #econsky #academicsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/09/mark...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

Market Design Impact Award to Yan Chen

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I'm shaken to learn that Greg Segal has temporarily suspended his registration as a potential deceased organ donor. My registration remains active, but I'm watching with attention the regulatory and other reforms for deceased donation in the U.S. #econsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/09/a-pa...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

A passionate proponent of transplants is (temporarily) unregistered as a donor: Greg Segal in the NYT

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Michael Kremer, one of the most creative and dedicated economists of our time, has found his next act, at the World Bank. (Sometimes the news is encouraging, even nowadays.) #econsky #academicsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/09/mich...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

Micheal Kremer's next (post-Nobel) Act: The World Bank

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Are robots (and robot cars) repugnant? #econsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/09/woul...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

Would Jesus like Waymo?

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Maybe it’s too obvious to have to say very often

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

The single most important quality in a great researcher is to be lucky, and to find topics that are worth working on and that yield to investigation." #econsky #academicsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/09/the-...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

"The single most important quality in a great researcher is to be lucky"

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

The debate over how to regulate, promote, and defend against new developments in A.I. has taken a market design turn, with increased calls for regulation. This looks to President Trump like an easy problem, already solved. #econsky #ai marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/09/ai-g...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

A.I. guardrails: Trump Says “a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT" is all that’s needed to rein in A.I.

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Lawsuits about application tools for medical residencies #econsky #medicine marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/09/cong...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

Congestion (and lawsuits) in applications for medical residency

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

As LLMs become increasingly important, we're seeing experiments that explore their behavior. (I expect Susan Calvin, Asimov's fictional robopsychologist from the1950 collection I Robot, will soon have scientists following in her footsteps.) #econsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/09/expe...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

Experimenting on the psychology of LLMs

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Here's the preliminary program for the October NBER Market Design Working Group Meeting at Stanford #econsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/09/nber...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

NBER Market Design Working Group Meeting, October at Stanford, Preliminary program

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Bans on surrogacy can support both legal workarounds (fertility tourism) and black markets marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/07/surr...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

Surrogacy: a political scandal in Germany, and fertility tourism around the world

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

“Europeans think of Americans’ enthusiasm for paid surrogacy the way we regard their fondness for guns and capital punishment: inexplicable. The piquant difference, however, is that surrogacy is a cause of the American left rather than the right.” #econsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/09/surr...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

Surrogacy (on each side of the Atlantic)

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Transplants of organs from pigs to humans is making progress, but pig organs haven't yet survived long enough to substitute for human organs. if pig organs can last long enough, they might first replace dialysis. #econsky #medicine #xenotransplants marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/09/xeno...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

Xenotransplants will substitute for dialysis before they replace human kidney transplants

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Wollman: in the highly concentrated dialysis market, in which prices are mostly federally regulated, mergers reduce competition on quality. #econsky #medicine marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/09/how-...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

How to Get Away with Merger in a Dialysis Duopoly by T.G. Wollman

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Here's tomorrow's conference agenda the Redefining Health Care in the Age of A.I. conference in Paris. Philippe Aghion will speak on "Should we fear AI?" My talk is about "Computational Intelligence and Organ Allocation on a Global Scale." #econsky #ai marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/09/ai-i...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

A.I. in health care in Paris

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

I'm in Paris, for the conference Redefining Healthcare in the Age of A.I. #ai marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/09/rede...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

Redefining Healthcare in the Age of A.I., Paris, Sept 8-10

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Organizations promoting living kidney donation (a very partial list) #econsky #kidney marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/09/hhs-...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

HHS Announces Winners of the 2026 Prize Challenge to Advance Living Kidney Donation

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Privacy while driving seems to be more important than privacy while surfing the internet, to judge from recent reactions to automated license-plate readers produced by the company Flock Safety. #econsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/09/priv...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

Privacy, A.I. and the backlash against Flock license-plate readers

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Session 18: Psychology and Economics at Stanford SITE Thu, Sep 3 2026, 8:00am - Fri, Sep 4 2026, 7:00pm PDT #econsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/09/psyc...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

Psychology and Economics at Stanford SITE: Sept 3-4 (Program)

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Jordi Brandts celebrated in Barcelona, together with the 40th anniversary of the Economic Science Association #econsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/09/the-...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

The Economic Science Association celebrates its 40th anniversary, and Jordi Brandts, in Barcelona

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Some policies sound obviously right when judged by their intentions. But what happens when you judge them by their actual consequences? #econsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/09/thre...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

Three takeaways on Moral Economics, with Lynn Thoman

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

here's a paper that caught my eye in the ASSA Preliminary Program in January in a session by the Association of Christian Economists Can Market Design Make Us More Free? …from the Perspective of Theological Anthropology #econsky #academicsky #religion marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/08/mark...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

Market design from the Perspective of Theological Anthropology, by Christina McRorie (in the January 2027 ASSA program)

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

But I think Gemini chose the best title:)

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Trump's renaming Lake Ontario got me thinking about Woody Guthrie’s song This Land Is Your Land. LLMs proposed these Trump versions: This Land Is My Brand by Gemini, This Gulf Is My Gulf by Claude, This map is my map, by Chat GPT #America marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/08/this...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

This Land is My Brand: From Woody Guthrie to DJ Trump

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

I just received William Thomson's excellent new book: A Guide for the Young Economist. “Thomson, a renowned teacher, explains the invisible curriculum for becoming an academic economist, from pursuing a PhD to approaching tenure.” #econsky #academicsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/08/just...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

Advice for young academic economists, by William Thomson

Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

The Gray Area podcast on controversial markets and Moral Economics #econsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/08/the-...

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

The Gray Area, on Moral Economics and controversial markets