I recently flew to and from Europe on a United/Lufthansa set of flights. Had I flown British Airways (which I haven't done since
this incident), I could have seen myself in
Tim Harford's article about me and market design and the recent Nobel in their Business Life magazine...
"Perhaps most important, Al Roth has a real interest in the way that markets work. If more economists had felt the same way about obscure financial markets such as credit default swaps, collateralised debt and 'repo', we might have had a better chance of avoiding the banking crisis."
ReplyDeleteThis final claim in the article is quite tantalizing. Obviously an education in the way markets work can temper enthusiasm for pricing complex financial instruments by formula, but can it actually help avoid crises? Interesting to think about.