tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47480607986554001082024-03-19T01:48:18.520-07:00Market DesignI'll post market design related news and items about <a href="http://web.stanford.edu/~alroth/alroth.html#Repugnant">repugnant markets</a>.See also my <a href="http://web.stanford.edu/~alroth/alroth.html">Game theory, experimental economics, and market design page</a>. I have a general-interest book on market design: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Who-Gets-What-Why-Matchmaking/dp/0544705289/l">Who Gets What--and Why</a> The subtitle is "The new economics of matchmaking and market design."Al Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02232854038397912604noreply@blogger.comBlogger6283125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748060798655400108.post-5473833377325460032024-03-19T00:20:00.000-07:002024-03-19T00:20:00.140-07:00The Impact of prioritization on kidney and liver allocation in Israel<p> <span face=""Open Sans", icomoon, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span face=""Open Sans", icomoon, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;"> </span><span face=""Open Sans", icomoon, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;"><span>Israel's Organ Transplantation Law grants some priority on waiting lists for transplants to candidates who are first-degree relatives of deceased organ donors (i.e. whose family has given permission for someone's deceased organ donation) or who previously registered as organ donors themselves. (There's also a tiny priority for relatives of people who signed organ donor cards...) Here are two papers that looks at the effect of those priorities on kidney and liver transplants, and how they interact with other priorities on waiting lists for Israeli organs. </span></span></span></p><p><span face=""Open Sans", icomoon, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: large;">The first paper, on kidneys, concludes that the priorities are effective in reducing waiting time to transplant, and suggests that perhaps these priorities should not be so large compared to other existing priorities (e.g. for time on dialysis), or for priorities that could be established, e.g. for highly sensitized patients (who get high priority in the U.S., for example.)</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Mor, Eytan, Meitar Bloom, Ronen Ghinea, Roi Anteby, Ronit Pasvolsky-Gutman, Ron Loewenthal, Ido Nachmani, and Tammy Hod. "<a href="https://journals.lww.com/transplantjournal/fulltext/9900/the_impact_of_the_donor_card_holder_prioritization.641.aspx">The Impact of the Donor Card Holder Prioritization Program on Kidney Allocation in Israel.</a>" Transplantation (2024): 10-1097.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Abstract</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Background: Since 2014, as part of a priority program within the Israeli Transplant Law, additional points were given to waitlisted candidates with donor cards. We assessed the impact on deceased donor kidney allocation.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Methods: This study enrolled all patients older than 18 y who underwent deceased donor kidney transplantation (January 2016–December 2019). Data were obtained from the National HLA Tissue Laboratory registry at the Sheba Medical Center. Patients were grouped by donor card status (ADI group)<b> (not signed, 0 points; relative signed, 0.1 points; patient signed, 2 points; and relative donated, 9 points)</b>. The primary outcome was waiting time until kidney transplantation with and without the additional score.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Results:<b> Four hundred forty-four patients underwent kidney transplantation during the study period: 281 (63%) were donor card holders (DCH) and 163 (37%) were not DCH. DCH with extra points waited 68.0 (±47.0) mo on average, compared with 94.6 (±47.3) mo for not DCH (P < 0.001). </b>Donor card signers had a shorter time until transplant in a multivariable model. <b>Without extra points, 145 recipients (32.6%) would have missed organs allocated to higher-scored candidates.</b> <b>Allocation changes occurred in 1 patient because of an additional 0.1 points, in 103 candidates because of an additional 2 points, and in 41 candidates because of an additional 9 points.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Conclusions: <b>Additional DCH scores improved allocation and reduced waiting time for donor card signers and those with donating relatives. To enhance fairness, consideration should be given to reducing the score weight of this social criterion and raising scores for other factors, especially dialysis duration.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">##########</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">There are many fewer liver transplants than kidney transplants, and the effect of priority is less clear:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Ashkenazi, Tamar, Avraham Stoler, and Eytan Mor. "<a href="https://journals.lww.com/transplantjournal/fulltext/2022/02000/the_effect_of_priority_given_to_donor_card_holders.19.aspx">The effect of priority given to donor card holders on the allocation of livers for transplant—evidence from 7 years of the Israeli priority program</a>." Transplantation 106, no. 2 (2022): 299-307.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Abstract</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Background. The Israeli Transplant Law grants priority in organ allocation to patients signing a donor card. Liver transplant candidates get additional 2 points on their Model for End Stage Liver Disease score for signing a donor card, 0.1 points for a relative holding a card, and 5 points if a relative donated an organ. We studied the effect of the priority program on waiting list mortality and allocation changes due to priority.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Methods. Using Israeli Transplant data of 531 adult liver transplant candidates with chronic liver disease listed between 2012 and 2018 we compared waitlist mortality and transplant rate of candidates with and without priority. Then we analyzed liver allocations resulting from additional priority points and followed outcome of patients who were skipped in line.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Results. Of the 519 candidates, 294 did not sign a donor card, 82 signed, 140 had a relative sign, and for 3, a relative donated an organ. The rates of waitlist mortality in these 4 groups were 22.4%, 0%, 21.4%, and 0%, respectively, and the transplant rates were 50%, 59.8%, 49.3%, and 100%, respectively. Of the 30 patients who were skipped because of priority, 24 subsequently underwent transplant, 2 are on the waiting list, and 4 died within 0.75, 1.75, 7, and 17 mo.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Conclusions. The 2 points added to the Model for End Stage Liver Disease score were associated with lower waitlist mortality and higher transplant rate for candidates signing a donor card without significantly affecting access to transplant during allocation. Further research and consideration of optimal policy when granting priority for candidates signing a donor card should continue.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">###########</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Earlier:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Stoler, Avraham, Judd B. Kessler, Tamar Ashkenazi, Alvin E. Roth, Jacob Lavee, “<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1600613522008036">Incentivizing Authorization for Deceased Organ Donation with Organ Allocation Priority: the First Five Years</a>,” American Journal of Transplantation, Volume 16, Issue 9, September 2016, 2639–2645. </span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> Stoler, Avraham, Judd B. Kessler, Tamar Ashkenazi, Alvin E. Roth, Jacob Lavee, “<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hec.3328">Incentivizing Organ Donor Registrations with Organ Allocation Priority</a>,”, Health Economics, April 2016 Volume: 26 Issue: 4 Pages: 500-510 APR 2017</span></p><div><br /></div>Al Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02232854038397912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748060798655400108.post-42086091383092117112024-03-18T00:13:00.000-07:002024-03-18T00:13:00.141-07:00Eyal Winter's historical novel "Anna's Children"<p><span style="font-size: large;"> <a href="http://www.ma.huji.ac.il/~mseyal/">Eyal Winter</a>, the eminent Israeli economist (who was a postdoc of mine a lifetime ago, in Pittsburgh), has published a novel called Anna's Children, about his aunt, who tried to rescue 22 orphans after Kristallnacht. It's discussed in this interview in Haaretz (and there is another link to the article <a href="https://www.msn.com/he-il/lifestyle/lifestyle/the-idea-that-who-you-are-is-only-genetics-is-the-essence-of-evil/ar-BB1hQGig">here</a> if the one below doesn't work).</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/life/books/2024-02-06/ty-article-magazine/.premium/the-idea-that-who-you-are-is-only-genetics-is-the-essence-of-evil/0000018d-7402-dd6e-a98d-f422d4120000">'The Idea That Who You Are Is Only Genetics Is the Essence of Evil'</a> A new book by Prof. Eyal Winter, an economist and games theory researcher, tells the story of his aunt, a woman of high society in pre-Nazi Germany, who tried to rescue 22 orphans from the Holocaust. by Gili Izikovich</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"Winter, 64, is no stranger to writing, but "Anna's Children" is his first novel. He was born and raised in Jerusalem and now lives in a bright, beautiful stone house in the suburb of Mevasseret Zion.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"<i>Is this a good time to publish a book about the Holocaust?</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"I pondered a lot about the link between the Holocaust and what happened in October," says Winter. "I considered delaying the book. It's a difficult story with a bad ending, but it also has elements of comfort given what is happening with us. It's possible to understand our reactions to the contemporary situation and maybe make it easier somehow."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">#######</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Here's his related post on Linkedin: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/eyal-winter-739b6b44_children-make-up-50-of-the-population-in-activity-7131695233922162688-BRlq">Eyal Winter’s Post</a></span></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Al Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02232854038397912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748060798655400108.post-140442517492949562024-03-17T05:55:00.000-07:002024-03-17T06:13:17.936-07:00Privacy while driving<p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> Internet connected cars collect lots of data on driving behavior, which can be sold to insurance companies and used to change drivers' insurance rates.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The NYT has the story:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/technology/carmakers-driver-tracking-insurance.html?unlocked_article_code=1.dU0.HSFE.VWkJhHtY6I84&smid=url-share">Automakers Are Sharing Consumers’ Driving Behavior With Insurance Companies</a> . LexisNexis, which generates consumer risk profiles for the insurers, knew about every trip G.M. drivers had taken in their cars, including when they sped, braked too hard or accelerated rapidly. By Kashmir Hill</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">"LexisNexis is a New York-based global data broker with a “Risk Solutions” division that caters to the auto insurance industry and has traditionally kept tabs on car accidents and tickets. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">"<span style="background-color: white; color: #363636;">In recent years, insurance companies have offered incentives to people who install dongles in their cars or download smartphone apps that monitor their driving, including how much they drive, how fast they take corners, how hard they hit the brakes and whether they speed. But “drivers are historically reluctant to participate in these programs,” as Ford Motor put it in a </span><a class="css-yywogo" href="https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/1d/13/d2/197982a7afa0d8/US20220188935A1.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-color: var(--color-signal-editorial,#326891); text-decoration-style: solid; text-decoration-thickness: 1px; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="">patent application</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #363636;"> that describes what is happening instead: <b>Car companies are collecting information directly from internet-connected vehicles for use by the insurance industry.</b></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #363636;">"</span><span color="var(--color-content-secondary,#363636)" style="background-color: white;">Sometimes this is happening with a driver’s awareness and consent. Car companies have established relationships with insurance companies, so that if drivers want to sign up for what’s called usage-based insurance — where rates are set based on monitoring of their driving habits — it’s easy to collect that data wirelessly from their cars.</span></span></p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: var(--color-content-secondary,#363636); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.875rem; margin: 0px 0px 0.9375rem; max-width: 100%; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline; width: 600px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">But in other instances, something much sneakier has happened. <b>Modern cars are internet-enabled, allowing access to services like navigation, roadside assistance and car apps that drivers can connect to their vehicles to locate them or unlock them remotely. In recent years, automakers, including G.M., Honda, Kia and Hyundai, have started offering optional features in their connected-car apps that rate people’s driving. Some drivers may not realize that, if they turn on these features, the car companies then give information about how they drive to data brokers like LexisNexis.</b></span></p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: var(--color-content-secondary,#363636); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.875rem; margin: 0px 0px 0.9375rem; max-width: 100%; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline; width: 600px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">"Automakers and data brokers that have partnered to collect detailed driving data from millions of Americans say they have drivers’ permission to do so. But the existence of these partnerships is nearly invisible to drivers, whose consent is obtained in fine print and murky privacy policies that few read.</span></p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: var(--color-content-secondary,#363636); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.875rem; margin: 0px 0px 0.9375rem; max-width: 100%; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline; width: 600px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">"Especially troubling is that some drivers with vehicles made by G.M. say they were tracked even when they did not turn on the feature — called OnStar Smart Driver — and that their insurance rates went up as a result."</span></p>Al Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02232854038397912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748060798655400108.post-85540847878942826002024-03-16T05:06:00.000-07:002024-03-16T05:06:00.277-07:00Match Day for new doctors<p><span style="font-size: large;"> The 2024 Match for new American doctors was announced yesterday by the <a href="https://www.nrmp.org/">NRMP,</a> the National Resident Matching Program. Congratulations to all!</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Here are some links:</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px center; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "IBM Plex Serif", Lato, "Lucida Grande", Tahoma, serif; margin: 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a data-id="https://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Advance-Data-Tables-2024.pdf" data-type="link" href="https://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Advance-Data-Tables-2024.pdf" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px center; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-shadow: currentcolor 0px 0px 4px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Advance Data Tables</a><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><a data-id="https://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/2024-Match-by-the-Numbers.pdf" data-type="link" href="https://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/2024-Match-by-the-Numbers.pdf" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px center; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Match By the Numbers</a><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><a data-id="https://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/2024-Match-Day-Press-Release-FINAL.pdf" data-type="link" href="https://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/2024-Match-Day-Press-Release-FINAL.pdf" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px center; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.15s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Press Release</a></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjZKrlgcZH-wOmCwShzdUb7w3fWCXpdUH_s-Cv_UKLsOqnBnmN23tXXxT2OfewX5KSjBQ0bcdNJH2rGKOCjOuD_rOJloRc99giNfh35Bh7HC7eqN7jxGtTl-10viqW454EiWTzaZ4QG2KfKLSZEElIOgFyhfp1Do7RVwy47eaoE6jHFvG8rjXPBilImLS4" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="768" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjZKrlgcZH-wOmCwShzdUb7w3fWCXpdUH_s-Cv_UKLsOqnBnmN23tXXxT2OfewX5KSjBQ0bcdNJH2rGKOCjOuD_rOJloRc99giNfh35Bh7HC7eqN7jxGtTl-10viqW454EiWTzaZ4QG2KfKLSZEElIOgFyhfp1Do7RVwy47eaoE6jHFvG8rjXPBilImLS4=w256-h640" width="256" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p><br /></p>Al Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02232854038397912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748060798655400108.post-80406060719642195252024-03-15T05:09:00.000-07:002024-03-15T05:09:00.127-07:00Plasma in Canada: payments and protests<p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> The local newspaper in Niagara on the Lake, a town in Ontario, Canada, covers the proposed opening next year of plasma collection centers that will pay for plasma.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.notllocal.com/around-ontario/beyond-local-pay-for-plasma-centre-draws-criticism-from-health-coalition-8434105">Pay-for-plasma centre draws criticism from Health Coalition. </a>The centre, which will pay residents to donate their blood plasma, is scheduled to open on Hespeler Road by early 2025, by Matt Betts</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">"The chair of the Waterloo Region Health Coalition is raising concerns about a pay-for-plasma centre slated to open on Hespeler Road in Cambridge by early 2025.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">"Just as it sounds, residents can be compensated for donating their blood plasma.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">"It's all part of an agreement between Spanish global healthcare company, Grifols, and the Canadian Blood Services.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">"In September 2022, Canadian Blood Services announced our action plan in response to a global shortage of medications called immunoglobulins and plasma needed to make them," CBS said in an email to CambridgeToday.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">"With funding from governments, Canadian Blood Services is opening 11 plasma donor centres in Canada and collecting more plasma ourselves. Our agreement with Grifols, a global healthcare company and leader in producing plasma medicines, is another part of that plan."</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">"paying for donations is banned in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">"However, CBS said its been in close discussions with the government and has an exemption.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">"<b>The agreement also complies with Ontario’s Voluntary Blood Donations Act, which has always contained an exemption for Canadian Blood Services,</b> with implicit consideration of our agents, given our role as the national blood operator and supplier of blood products in Canada. Through our agreement, <b>Grifols will operate under the Act as an agent of Canadian Blood Services</b>."</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">"Per the agreement, <b>Grifols must use plasma they collect in Canada to make immunoglobulins exclusively for patients in Canada, which reduces reliance on the global market,</b> CBS said.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">"But the whole operation doesn't sit right with Waterloo Region Health Coalition chair, Jim Stewart.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>"It's a repugnant example of profit driven healthcare,"</b> Stewart said, questioning who's profiting in the end.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>"What's next, paying people for their organs or embryos? </b>This is just another example of Premier Doug Ford’s drive to privatize our healthcare system."</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">""These pay-for-donations centres really impact the homeless, people with low incomes and those with high levels of unemployment. This is going to dismantle the voluntary donor base and the sustainability of blood supply could be in jeopardy."</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">"<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">While not confirmed by Grifols, Canadian Blood Resources and </span><a class="ga ga-ext" data-ga-action="OutboundLink" data-ga-category="OutboundLink" data-ga-label="https://giveplasma.ca/donors/compensation/" href="https://giveplasma.ca/donors/compensation/?utm_source=niagara-on-the-lake%20local&utm_campaign=niagara-on-the-lake%20local%3A%20outbound&utm_medium=referral" rel="noopener" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1665a8;" target="_blank">giveplasma.ca</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"> states qualified donors can earn up to $70 per donation and can donate twice in a seven day period."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">#####</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">HT: Frank McCormick</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">Earlier:</span></span></p><h2 class="date-header" style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #777777; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13.65px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 10px 0px 0px;">Sunday, September 18, 2022</h2><div class="date-posts" style="background-color: #f6f6f6; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><div class="post-outer"><div class="post hentry uncustomized-post-template" style="margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><a name="4334596425380113277" style="color: #de7008;"></a><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="color: #9e5205; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 20.8px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2022/09/canadian-blood-services-to-start-paying.html" style="color: #9e5205;">Canadian Blood Services to start paying Canadian plasma donors</a></h3></div></div></div>Al Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02232854038397912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748060798655400108.post-46034500224842343312024-03-14T05:19:00.000-07:002024-03-14T19:29:13.392-07:00New Zealand repeals anti-smoking law that would have prevented tobacco sales to anyone born after 2008<p><span style="font-size: large;"> In an <a href="https://marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2023/10/nicotine-in-new-zealand-banned-for.html">earlier blog post</a>, I wrote about a New Zealand anti-smoking law, saying "And now there's a law that cuts nicotine content of cigarettes, and (get this) "bans the next generation of New Zealanders — anyone born after 2008 or currently 14 years old or younger — from ever buying cigarettes in the country. " (That's going to be a complicated age restriction to administer in, say, 10 years from now...) </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Well, people born in 2008 are turning 16 this year, and New Zealand just repealed that law, for reasons that New Zealand's prime minister Christopher Luxon says include concerns about black markets.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Here's an article from Medpage today, reporting on the change in the law. However the article takes the point of view that black markets are just a smokescreen thrown up by tobacco companies.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/second-opinions/109039">Up in Smoke: What Happened to New Zealand's Tobacco Ban Plan?</a>— It appears the new government is making an embarrassing attempt to fend off a budget shortfall. by Eric Trump, March 6, 2024</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"As part of the newly elected coalition government's rush to tick 49 "actions" off its 100-day list by March 8, it has repealed the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Amendment Act of 2022. This act, passed by the previous Labour government, would have banned selling tobacco products to those born on or after January 1, 2009, reduced the nicotine in tobacco products to non-addictive levels, and slashed the number of outlets allowed to sell tobacco by 90%, from 6,000 to 600. Overall tobacco use was predicted to drop from the current 8% to lower than 5% by 2025, and the act was expected to create a tobacco-free generation.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"<span face="BerninaSansWeb, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><b>Why would New Zealand's new coalition government</b>,</span><span face="BerninaSansWeb, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"> </span><a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/key-players-new-zealands-new-government-2023-11-24/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0271c1; font-family: BerninaSansWeb, Arial, sans-serif; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; z-index: 24;" target="_blank" title="Opens in a new tab or window">an alliance</a> <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/key-players-new-zealands-new-government-2023-11-24/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0271c1; font-family: BerninaSansWeb, Arial, sans-serif; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; z-index: 24;" target="_blank" title="Opens in a new tab or window"><span class="screen-readers-only" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); display: inline; height: 1px; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; width: 1px;">opens in a new tab or window</span></a></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: BerninaSansWeb, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-size: large;">of the conservative National Party along with the libertarian ACT and populist New Zealand First parties, <b>repeal data-driven and life- and money-saving legislation? Without a shred of evidence, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his coalition partners have repeatedly claimed restricting tobacco and reducing nicotine levels is experimental (as though that were a bad thing), leading to <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/503342/smokefree-legislation-would-have-driven-cigarette-black-market-christopher-luxon" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0271c1; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; z-index: 24;" target="_blank" title="Opens in a new tab or window">black markets<span class="screen-readers-only" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); height: 1px; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; width: 1px;">opens in a new tab or window</span></a> and a <a href="https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/12/04/natural-reality-luxon-on-cigarette-black-market-claims/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0271c1; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; z-index: 24;" target="_blank" title="Opens in a new tab or window">proliferation of crime<span class="screen-readers-only" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); height: 1px; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; width: 1px;">opens in a new tab or window</span></a>. ACT's health spokesperson Todd Stephenson, for example, <a href="https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2312/S00037/tobacco-prohibitionists-woefully-misguided.htm" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0271c1; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; z-index: 24;" target="_blank" title="Opens in a new tab or window">said that<span class="screen-readers-only" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); height: 1px; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; width: 1px;">opens in a new tab or window</span></a> the "radical prohibitionism" of creating a smoke-free generation would "push smokers into the arms of gang members."</b></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: BerninaSansWeb, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-size: large;">"This rhetoric uncannily echoes the tobacco lobby. Public health experts at the University of Otago recently released a <a href="https://www.phcc.org.nz/briefing/tobacco-industry-interference-new-government-meeting-its-international-obligations" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0271c1; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; z-index: 24;" target="_blank" title="Opens in a new tab or window">damning report<span class="screen-readers-only" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); height: 1px; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; width: 1px;">opens in a new tab or window</span></a> showing that the coalition government's arguments in favor of a repeal closely mirror the tobacco industry's own narratives on this subject.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: BerninaSansWeb, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-size: large;">"So suspicious are the similarities between the flimsy remarks of coalition partners and tobacco companies' talking points that the report's authors are calling on all members of parliament to declare any past associations with tobacco companies.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: BerninaSansWeb, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-size: large;">######</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Here's the story about the Prime Minister's concerns, from Radio New Zealand (RNZ):</span></p><p><a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/503342/smokefree-legislation-would-have-driven-cigarette-black-market-christopher-luxon"><span style="font-size: large;">Smokefree legislation would have driven cigarette black market - Christopher Luxon</span></a></p><p><br /></p>Al Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02232854038397912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748060798655400108.post-63624715555497527512024-03-13T05:47:00.000-07:002024-03-13T05:47:00.137-07:00SITE 2024 Conference: Call For Papers for Summer 2024<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> Now is the time to be thinking of submitting papers for the summer sessions at Stanford. (Some deadlines are in April.)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Here's the call for papers:</span></p><p><a href="https://economics.stanford.edu/site/paper-submission"><span style="font-size: medium;">SITE 2024 Conference: Call For Papers</span></a></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Stanford Economics is proud to host its annual Stanford Institute for Theoretical Economics (SITE) Conference from July 1 to September 11 2024. SITE sponsors sessions that encompass both economic theory and empirical work and cover a broad range of topics. It brings together established and emerging scholars to present leading-edge economic research, to educate, and to collaborate.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">These sessions are scheduled:</span></p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Gender Monday, July 1, 2024, 8:00am - Tuesday, July 2, 2024, 5:00pm</span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Empirical Implementation of Theoretical Models of Strategic Interaction and Dynamic Behavior Thursday, July 11, 2024, 8:00am - Friday, July 12, 2024, 5:00pm</span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Trade and Finance Thursday, July 25, 2024, 8:00am - Friday, July 26, 2024, 5:00pm</span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Fiscal Sustainability Thursday, August 1, 2024, 8:00am - Friday, August 2, 2024, 5:00pm</span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Dynamic Games, Contracts, and Markets Monday, August 5, 2024, 8:00am - Wednesday, August 7, 2024, 5:00pm</span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">The Micro and Macro of Labor Markets Tuesday, August 6, 2024, 8:00am - Wednesday, August 7, 2024, 5:00pm</span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Political Economic Theory Thursday, August 8, 2024, 8:00am - Friday, August 9, 2024, 5:00pm</span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Market Design Thursday, August 8, 2024, 8:00am - Friday, August 9, 2024, 5:00pm</span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Market Failures and Public Policy Wednesday, August 14, 2024, 8:00am - Thursday, August 15, 2024, 5:00pm</span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Empirical Market Design Thursday, August 15, 2024, 8:00am - Friday, August 16, 2024, 5:00pm</span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Climate Finance and Banking Monday, August 19, 2024, 8:00am - Tuesday, August 20, 2024, 8:00am</span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Frontiers of Macroeconomic Research Wednesday, August 21, 2024, 8:00am - Friday, August 23, 2024, 5:00pm</span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Experimental Economics Thursday, August 22, 2024, 8:00am - Friday, August 23, 2024, 5:00pm</span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Psychology and Economics Monday, August 26, 2024, 8:00am - Tuesday, August 27, 2024, 9:00pm</span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">The Labor Market Experience of Vulnerable Populations of Workers Monday, August 26, 2024, 8:00am - 5:00pm</span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Housing and Urban Economics Wednesday, August 28, 2024, 8:00am - Friday, August 30, 2024, 5:00pm</span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">The Macroeconomics of Uncertainty and Volatility Wednesday, September 4, 2024, 8:00am - Friday, September 6, 2024, 5:00pm</span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">New Research in Asset Pricing Wednesday, September 4, 2024, 8:00am - Friday, September 6, 2024, 5:00pm</span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">The Economics of Transparency Thursday, September 5, 2024, 8:00am - Friday, September 6, 2024, 5:00pm</span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Financial Regulation Monday, September 9, 2024, 8:00am - Wednesday, September 11, 2024, 5:00pm</span></li></ol><p></p><p><br /></p>Al Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02232854038397912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748060798655400108.post-1584673446501775012024-03-12T05:39:00.000-07:002024-03-12T05:39:00.137-07:00Kidney exchange between Portugal and Spain, and prospects for global kidney exchange<p><span style="font-size: large;"> Here's an article from a Portuguese hospital that has engaged in kidney exchanges with Spanish hospitals that have resulted in three transplants for Portuguese patients since the program was initiated in 2017. The paper considers how international kidney exchange can be expanded globally, so as to have significant effects on the health of Portuguese and other patients. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The concluding two paragraphs of the paper speak about global kidney exchange, and the controversy that it has aroused, <a href="https://marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2020/01/global-kidney-exchange-continued.html">particularly in Spain</a>, where there has been opposition to significant cross-border kidney exchange.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Francisco, José Teixeira, Renata Carvalho, Joana Freitas, Miguel Trigo Coimbra, Sara Vilela, Manuela Almeida, Sandra Tafulo et al. "<a href="https://bjt.emnuvens.com.br/revista/article/view/531">International Crossed Renal Donation – The Experience of a Single Center</a>," Brazilian Journal of Transplantation, </span><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://bjt.emnuvens.com.br/revista/issue/view/75">v. 26 (2023)</a></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"<b>Introduction</b>: Kidney transplantation is the preferred treatment for end-stage chronic kidney disease, however, the shortage of organs can result in long waiting times. Living donor kidney transplantation offers an alternative to cadaver donor, but HLA or AB0 incompatibility can represent a significant obstacle. <b>This study aimed to show the results achieved by a Portuguese hospital since its integration into an international cross-donation program, the South Alliance for Transplants (SAT). </b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"<b>Methods</b>: T<b>he SAT program was founded in 2017 and is made up of ten Spanish hospitals, three Italian hospitals and one Portuguese hospital. The program takes place every 4 months and only enrolls pairs who are incompatible. Organ transport is carried out in partnership with the Portuguese Air Force. </b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"<b>Results</b>: <b>Three different crosses were carried out in partnership with three Spanish hospitals, culminating in the transplantation of three Portuguese patients out of a total of seven patients</b>. The first crossing was carried out in March 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the partnership of two Portuguese hospitals and a Spanish hospital, involving 1 donor/recipient pair from each country,... The second occurred in December 2021 with 3 donor/recipient pairs (1 Portuguese in which the recipient had anti-donor antibodies and positive crossmatch with the potential donor; and 2 from two Spanish hospitals),... The third crossing also took place in December 2021 with 2 donor/recipient pairs (1 Portuguese and 1 Spanish)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"</span><span style="font-size: large;"><b>A Global Kidney Exchange Program (GKEP), an idea initiated by Rees et al.,16 which involves kidney paired donation between high-income and low-income and medium-income countries (LMICs).</b> Beyond the potential benefits associated with this type of transplantation, similar to those already addressed for international programs, there are concerns about the ethical implications of such programs. They may perpetuate existing inequalities between high and low-income countries, which has motivated a statement from the Declaration of Istanbul Custodian Group.17 Some critics argue that the practices of most PRMBs lack transparency, leaving room for exploitation and corruption,18 or raise ethical concerns regarding the commodification of organs.19On the other hand, proponents of the idea argue that a GKEP could help address the global shortage of donor organs and provide lifesaving opportunities for patients in need. They also note that such programs could foster collaboration and information-sharing between countries and institutions, potentially leading to improvements in transplant practices worldwide.16,20 <b>Despite the controversy surrounding the proposal, the idea of a GKEP remains an intriguing possibility for advancing kidney transplantation on a global scale.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"CONCLUSION: <b>Our experience and that of other locations show that programs like these offer numerous benefits, such as expanding the pool of available donors, improving compatibility between donors and recipients, and avoiding the costs and risks associated with desensitization therapies for ABO or HLA incompatible transplantations. These programs represent a valuable option for individuals who require a kidney transplant and can be an effective means of increasing transplant success rates and improving quality of life for patients. However, the success of these programs depends on the number of pairs enrolled.</b> To ensure the success of these programs, there is a need for greater awareness, education, and promotion of their benefits and outcomes among the public, healthcare providers, and policymakers alike.</span></p>Al Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02232854038397912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748060798655400108.post-4224768552984806132024-03-11T05:43:00.000-07:002024-03-11T05:43:00.128-07:00Global disparities in kidney disease and care <p> <span style="font-size: large;">Here's a report on the availability of treatment of kidney disease around the world. If you are unlucky enough to have kidney failure (which is a top 10 cause of death), it's good to be in North America or Western Europe. Most countries (70%) have at least a minimal capacity to perform transplants. But if I read the map correctly, preemptive kidney transplants (i.e. transplants before dialysis, in map D below) are relatively common only in the U.S., Britain, and Norway. (And worldwide, a transplant costs less than two years of dialysis...)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Bello, A.K., Okpechi, I.G., Levin, A., Ye, F., Damster, S., Arruebo, S., Donner, J.A., Caskey, F.J., Cho, Y., Davids, M.R. and Davison, S.N., 2024. <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(23)00570-3/fulltext">An update on the global disparities in kidney disease burden and care across world countries and regions.</a> The Lancet Global Health, 12(3), pp.e382-e395.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"Background</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"Since 2015, the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) Global Kidney Health Atlas (ISN-GKHA) has spearheaded multinational efforts to understand the status and capacity of countries to provide optimal kidney care, particularly in low-resource settings. In this iteration of the ISN-GKHA, we sought to extend previous findings by assessing availability, accessibility, quality, and affordability of medicines, kidney replacement therapy (KRT), and conservative kidney management (CKM).</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"Findings</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The literature review used information on prevalence of chronic kidney disease from 161 countries. <b>The global median prevalence of chronic kidney disease was 9·5% (IQR 5·9–11·7) with the highest prevalence in Eastern and Central Europe (12·8%, 11·9–14·1)</b>. For the survey analysis, responses received covered 167 (87%) of 191 countries, representing 97·4% (7·700 billion of 7·903 billion) of the world population. <b>Chronic haemodialysis was available in 162 (98%) of 165 countries, chronic peritoneal dialysis in 130 (79%), and kidney transplantation in 116 (70%). </b>However, 121 (74%) of 164 countries were able to provide KRT to more than 50% of people with kidney failure. Children did not have access to haemodialysis in 12 (19%) of 62 countries, peritoneal dialysis in three (6%) countries, or kidney transplantation in three (6%) countries. CKM (non-dialysis management of people with kidney failure chosen through shared decision making) was available in 87 (53%) of 165 countries. <b>The annual median costs of KRT were: US$19 380 per person for haemodialysis, $18 959 for peritoneal dialysis, and $26 903 for the first year of kidney transplantation.</b> Overall, <b>74 (45%) of 166 countries allocated public funding to provide free haemodialysis at the point of delivery; use of this funding scheme increased with country income level.</b> The median global <b>prevalence of nephrologists was 11·8 per million population (IQR 1·8–24·8) with an 80-fold difference between low-income and high-income countries.</b> Differing degrees of health workforce shortages were reported across regions and country income levels. A quarter of countries had a national chronic kidney disease-specific strategy (41 [25%] of 162) and chronic kidney disease was recognised as a health priority in 78 (48%) of 162 countries.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgxyRnFi2FDaMP1Hn4gmwp_kkPlAWVrFRiTaVJkKeo6glG3s7seCdyZDDVnFLFKXZ-XI0u0A_8EpxDtYvIQvci8DUn3kB-mA2jGQIr40YaQ2BbawejGas8M53quaqRNt_bKLEa2wp3UrYUxmckM8M-N8qCh4p3kELP4C0vo5Sx1E9r9GBIpoUAnvQAZrj8" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="771" data-original-width="1137" height="434" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgxyRnFi2FDaMP1Hn4gmwp_kkPlAWVrFRiTaVJkKeo6glG3s7seCdyZDDVnFLFKXZ-XI0u0A_8EpxDtYvIQvci8DUn3kB-mA2jGQIr40YaQ2BbawejGas8M53quaqRNt_bKLEa2wp3UrYUxmckM8M-N8qCh4p3kELP4C0vo5Sx1E9r9GBIpoUAnvQAZrj8=w640-h434" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Figure 3 <span class="figure__title__text" face=""Source Sans Pro", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #505050; font-size: 15.008px; font-weight: 700; text-align: start;">Worldwide incidence of general, deceased-donor, living-donor, and pre-emptive kidney transplantations (cases pmp per year) </span><span face=""Source Sans Pro", sans-serif" style="background-color: #ebebeb; color: #505050; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">(A) Incidence of kidney transplantation. (B) Incidence of deceased-donor kidney transplantation. (C) Incidence of living-donor kidney transplantation. (D) Incidence of pre-emptive kidney transplantation. pmp=per million population</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Even in the U.S., we aren't able to supply enough transplantable kidneys for everyone who needs one. Domestic kidney exchange helps fill some of the gap, but the gap, and the resulting number of premature deaths, is still huge. It's enough to make you think about <a href="https://marketdesigner.blogspot.com/search/label/global%20kidney%20exchange">global kidney exchange</a>...</span><p></p>Al Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02232854038397912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748060798655400108.post-5825620173658379782024-03-10T05:04:00.000-07:002024-03-10T05:04:00.136-07:00Does high pay equal "undue inducement"? An experiment by Sandro Ambuehl<p> <span style="font-size: large;">Here's an experiment about repugnant transactions, by <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/sandroambuehl/">Sandro Ambuehl</a>.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Ambuehl, Sandro, "<a href="https://rdcu.be/dAGLy">An experimental test of whether financial incentives constitute undue inducement in decision-making.</a>" Nature Human Behavior (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01817-8</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Abstract: <b>Around the world, laws limit the incentives that can be paid for transactions such as human research participation, egg donation or gestational surrogacy. A key reason is concerns about ‘undue inducement’—the influential but empirically untested hypothesis that incentives can cause harm by distorting individual decision-making.</b> Here I present two experiments (n = 671 and n = 406), including one based on a highly visceral transaction (eating insects). Incentives caused biased information search—participants offered a higher incentive to comply more often sought encouragement to do so. However, I demonstrate theoretically that such behaviour does not prove that incentives have harmful effects; it is consistent with Bayesian rationality. <b>Empirically, although a substantial minority of participants made bad decisions, incentives did not magnify them in a way that would suggest allowing a transaction but capping incentives. Under the conditions of this experiment, there was no evidence that higher incentives could undermine welfare for transactions that are permissible at low incentives.</b></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgSD3nWR0N3Aw63_Gk6RaDGAjnA12G7NuKrR_Qds-aopoEHg9DuRzlUXvnFvf8y2qELtzHUhIKVjnKPlWKdG-0DmK5ftktWnqWGTcz0Q08X8SqBC2gNah8WaWzGMIZgkv0eKeHvZafKsORoWzgLPDm9wRF-J6lAaw7A79eFebSUg7TtTkDCEF8OEnmg5Ms" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="709" data-original-width="1006" height="452" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgSD3nWR0N3Aw63_Gk6RaDGAjnA12G7NuKrR_Qds-aopoEHg9DuRzlUXvnFvf8y2qELtzHUhIKVjnKPlWKdG-0DmK5ftktWnqWGTcz0Q08X8SqBC2gNah8WaWzGMIZgkv0eKeHvZafKsORoWzgLPDm9wRF-J6lAaw7A79eFebSUg7TtTkDCEF8OEnmg5Ms=w640-h452" width="640" /></a></div><p><br /></p><span style="font-size: large;">From the conclusions:</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"Given the potentially high costs of preventing voluntary transactions, experiments paralleling those reported here should be conducted in the field. Unless their results differ drastically from the current ones, the rules and guidelines restricting incentives due to undue inducement concerns should be reconsidered."</span><br /><br /></p>Al Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02232854038397912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748060798655400108.post-19409615045573268572024-03-09T05:14:00.000-08:002024-03-09T05:14:00.250-08:00Michael Kremer on market design by economists (and other essays on developments in economics)<p> <span style="font-size: large;">The March issue of the IMF publication Finance and Development (<a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fandd">F&D</a>) contains this essay by Michael Kremer.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fandd/issues/2024/03/Symposium-Economics-and-innovation-Michael-Kremer">ECONOMICS AND INNOVATION </a>by MICHAEL KREMER, MARCH 2024</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Here are his concluding paragraphs:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"Economists as innovators</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"In addition to shedding light on the design of policies and institutions for innovation, economists can also participate directly in the innovation process. For example, economic theorists have used market design principles to design kidney transplant matching systems, and development economists are using experimental methods not just to test innovations, but also to help develop them. An analysis of Development Innovation Ventures (DIV)—the US Agency for International Development’s tiered evidence-based social innovation fund—found that 36 percent of awards went to innovations developed by teams including development economists, scaled to reach over 1 million users, compared with just 6 percent of awards to innovations without such involvement.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"Furthermore, 63 percent of DIV-supported innovations that had previously been tested in randomized controlled trials reached more than 1 million people, compared with only 12 percent of those without such trials. For example, economists helped develop a credit-scoring approach using psychometrics (psychological testing) to assess default risk for potential borrowers without credit histories, which scaled through adoption by commercial lenders.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"<b>Just as biochemists and computer scientists often develop practical innovations in their fields, economists are increasingly developing social innovations in ours</b>."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">#########</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The March issue also includes</span></p><p><a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fandd/issues/2024/03/New-lessons-from-behavioral-economics-Malmendier-Hamilton"><span style="font-size: large;">NEW LESSONS FROM BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS, by ULRIKE MALMENDIER and CLINT HAMILTON</span></a></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">and</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fandd/issues/2024/03/Symposium-Rethinking-Economics-Angus-Deaton">RETHINKING MY ECONOMICS by ANGUS DEATON</a></span></p>Al Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02232854038397912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748060798655400108.post-2013756687376409402024-03-08T05:17:00.000-08:002024-03-08T05:17:00.122-08:00Dr. Guy Alexandre (1934-2024), gave birth to brain death in deceased organ transplantation<p> <span style="font-size: large;">The father of brain death has died.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Here's the NYT obit.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/29/health/guy-alexandre-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.aU0.tUsN.gGy5NIlqzqkG&smid=url-share">Guy Alexandre, Transplant Surgeon Who Redefined Death, Dies at 89</a>. His willingness to remove kidneys from brain-dead patients increased the organs’ viability while challenging the line between living and dead. By Clay Risen</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"Guy Alexandre, a Belgian transplant surgeon who in the 1960s risked professional censure by removing kidneys from brain-dead patients whose hearts were still beating — a procedure that greatly improved organ viability while challenging the medical definition of death itself — died on Feb. 14 at his home in Brussels. He was 89.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"Dr. Alexandre was just 29 and fresh off a yearlong fellowship at Harvard Medical School when, in June 1963, a young patient was wheeled into the hospital where he worked in Louvain, Belgium. She had sustained a traumatic head injury in a traffic accident, and despite extensive neurosurgery, doctors pronounced her brain dead, though her heart continued to beat.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"He knew that in another part of the hospital, a patient was suffering from renal failure. He had assisted on kidney transplants at Harvard, and he understood that the organs began to lose viability soon after the heart stops beating.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"Dr. Alexandre pulled the chief surgeon, Jean Morelle, aside and made his case. Brain death, he said, is death. Machines can keep a heart beating for a long time with no hope of reviving a patient. His argument went against centuries of assumptions about the line between life and death, but Dr. Morelle was persuaded.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"Over the next two years, Dr. Alexandre and Dr. Morelle quietly performed several more kidney transplants using the same procedure. Finally, at a medical conference in London in 1965, Dr. Alexandre announced what he had been doing.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"In 1968, the Harvard Ad Hoc Committee, a group of medical experts, largely adopted Dr. Alexandre’s criteria when it declared that an irreversible coma should be understood as the equivalent of death, whether the heart continues to beat or not.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"Today, Dr. Alexandre’s perspective is widely shared in the medical community, and removing organs from brain-dead patients has become an accepted practice.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>“The greatness of Alexandre’s insight was that he was able to see the insignificance of the beating heart,” </b>Robert Berman, an organ-donation activist and journalist, <a href="https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/the-man-who-remade-death">wrote in Tablet magazine </a>in 2019.</span></p><div><span style="font-size: x-large;">###########</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">And here's the story from Tablet magazine, interesting in a number of respects:</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/the-man-who-remade-death">The Man Who Remade Death</a>. Guy Alexandre was the first surgeon to remove organs from a patient with a beating heart. His colleagues thought him a murderer; Alexandre disagreed and revolutionized our understanding of death. BY ROBBY BERMAN, Feb 4, 2019</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">"I met Alexandre a few months ago in his home in an upscale suburb of Brussels. The octogenarian is charming, affable and avuncular but he does not mince words: <b>The physicians who accused him of murder “were hypocrites. They viewed their brain dead patients as alive yet they had no qualms about turning off the ventilator to get the heart to stop beating before they removed kidneys. In addition to ‘killing’ the patient, they were giving the recipients damaged kidneys that suffered ischemia … oxygen deprivation. </b>The kidneys did not work well; they did not last long.”</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">"Given that brain death was not well known by the public in 1963,<b> I asked Alexandre how he succeeded in getting consent from families to donate the organs. “It was simple. I didn’t ask. I told the families the situation was grim and I removed the organs in the middle of the night. When the family returned the next morning I told them their loved one had died during the night.”</b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">"In 1961, Alexandre was in his third year of surgical training. He left Brussels for Boston to attend Harvard Medical School where he studied under professor Joseph Murray, the surgeon famous for performing the first successful kidney transplant between twins in 1954. After Alexandre successfully executed a number of kidney transplants between dogs in the laboratory, he was invited by Murray to join him in the operating room to operate on humans. It was there that Alexandre noticed a curious phenomenon.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">"<b>Murray turned off the ventilator in order to cause the heart to stop beating and only then did he extract the organs. Alexandre felt there was no need to damage the kidneys by depriving them of oxygen</b>. He believed when looking at a human body with a dead brain that he was looking at a corpse that was suffering from a bizarre medical condition: a beating heart. In other words, the organism was dead but the organs remained alive."</span></div><div><div><span style="font-size: large;">#########</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Earlier:</span></div><div><h2 class="date-header" style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #777777; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 10px 0px 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Friday, January 18, 2019</span></h2><div class="date-posts" style="background-color: #f6f6f6; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><div class="post-outer"><div class="post hentry uncustomized-post-template" style="margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a name="129674077872543283" style="color: #de7008;"></a></span><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="color: #9e5205; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2019/01/fifty-years-of-brain-death.html" style="color: #9e5205;"><span style="font-size: large;">Fifty years of "brain death"</span></a></h3><div><br /></div></div></div></div></div><span style="font-size: large;"></span></div><div><br /></div></div>Al Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02232854038397912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748060798655400108.post-21244017814078189932024-03-07T05:35:00.000-08:002024-03-07T05:35:00.128-08:00Increasing kidney transplants by reducing discards of risky kidneys<p> <span style="font-size: large;"><span>Kidneys from deceased donors are too often discarded. <a href="https://www.surgery.wisc.edu/staff/joshua-mezrich/">Dr. Joshua Mezrich</a>, a transplant surgeon at U. Wisconsin, writes in Stat about how to reduce the rate at which high risk kidneys are discarded (after being on ice for a long time while being rejected by many patients). He proposes that </span><span>kidneys that can be identified as high risk even before being recovered from the deceased donor</span><span> be offered promptly to patients/transplant centers that have indicated a willingness to take them. It would require transplant centers to keep current blood tests available for patients who are candidates for high risk kidneys (who may be candidates in part because they are far from the front of the waiting list...)</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.statnews.com/2024/03/02/donor-organs-kidney-transplant-discard/?utm_campaign=rss">Too many donor organs go to waste. Here’s how to get them into the patients who need them </a> By Joshua Mezrich, Stat, March 2, 2024 </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"So here is the fix. <b>High-risk kidneys should immediately be offered to transplant centers</b> that opt into a high-risk program <b>as an open offer to their wait list rather than to a specific patient</b>, on a rotating schedule with weight put on proximity to the donor hospital. Ideally <b>the offer should be made prior to procurement of the organ</b>, with final acceptance once it is removed and anatomy and biopsy results can be reviewed by the accepting surgeon.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"If the biopsies show significant disease and the function of the kidney would be inadequate for a recipient, <b>the receiving center can request both kidneys for a single patient</b>, termed a dual transplant (which has been shown to have good outcomes). If a center accepts a kidney, it can then choose the patient who will benefit the most from the transplant and has a long predicted wait time for a low-risk transplant, with informed consent. That would entail a discussion with the patient about expectations regarding the quality of the kidney, how long and how well it might work, and how much longer they might need to wait for a lower-risk kidney. The ability to match the kidney to a recipient is important, as high-risk kidneys need to go into patients who can tolerate the slow initial function. <b>Centers that opt into the high-risk program will need to maintain an updated list of informed patients who are predicted to benefit from these kidneys, who can be called in as soon an offer becomes available. </b>For them, taking a chance beats remaining on dialysis.</span></p>Al Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02232854038397912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748060798655400108.post-26836326511429704532024-03-06T05:40:00.000-08:002024-03-06T05:40:00.133-08:00France amends its constitution to protect access to abortion<p><span style="font-size: large;"> <span>The decision of the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v.Wade and end a constitutional right to abortion in the U.S. prompted France to amend its constitution to guarantee access to abortion.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Here's the WSJ story:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/03/04/france-abortion-constitution/">France becomes first country to explicitly enshrine abortion rights in constitution </a> By Karla Adam</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"With the endorsement of a specially convened session of lawmakers at the Palace of Versailles, France on Monday became the first country in the world to explicitly enshrine abortion rights in its constitution — an effort galvanized by the rollback of protections in the United States.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"The amendment referring to abortion as a “guaranteed freedom” passed by a vote of 780 in favor and 72 against, far above the required threshold of support from three-fifths of lawmakers, or 512 votes.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"French President Emmanuel Macron announced that a “sealing ceremony,” a tradition reserved for the most significant laws, would take place Friday, coinciding with International Women’s Day.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>“We’re sending a message to all women: Your body belongs to you, and no one can decide for you,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal told lawmakers assembled in Versailles."</b>*</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">#########</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Le Monde has the story, in an editorial supporting the amendment:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2024/03/04/enshrining-abortion-in-the-french-constitution-is-a-win-for-feminism-and-democracy_6583154_23.html#">Enshrining abortion access in the French Constitution is a win for feminism and democracy</a>, EDITORIAL, Le Monde, March 4</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"<b>The joint session of both houses of Parliament convened in Versailles on Monday, March 4, to enshrine access to abortion in the French Constitution</b>, marks an important moment in the life of the nation. And a proud moment, too. A few days before International Women's Rights Day on March 8, women's freedom to control their own bodies should be anchored in French law. <b>It also comes at a time when abortion, once thought to be a widely accepted procedure, is being undermined in a number of democracies, most notably the United States.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"<b>The three-fifths majority required in Parliament means that a consensus has been reached, despite the fact that abortion still disgusts some on the right and far right.</b> It's a sign that democracy works, despite the distress signals it is sending out.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"At every stage of the lengthy procedure initiated in November 2022, the drafting of the Constitutional reform constantly required perseverance and tact. First in the Assemblée Nationale, where, <b>in response to the shockwave caused in June 2022 by the US Supreme Court's decision to revoke the federal right to abortion,</b> the radical-left La France Insoumise party and the center-right presidential majority agreed to work together on a common cause.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"Then the fight continued in the Sénat, where, in loyalty to Simone Veil's 1975 battle to decriminalize abortion, a number of right-wing Les Républicains elected representatives fought hard to ensure that the debate, which they had reframed, could continue against the advice of their group's president, Bruno Retailleau, and Sénat President Gérard Larcher. Finally, in the government, Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti facilitated the drafting and adoption of the final text. <b>The compromise consists of enshrining the notion of "guaranteed freedom" for women to have access to abortion, without introducing an enforceable "right" to abortion as demanded by the left."</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">#######</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">*Regarding the Prime Minister's remark to women that "no one can decide for you" I note that surrogacy remains illegal in France.</span></p><h2 class="date-header" style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #777777; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 10px 0px 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Friday, October 18, 2019</span></h2><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="date-posts" style="background-color: #f6f6f6; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><div class="post-outer"><div class="post hentry uncustomized-post-template" style="margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a name="4524264673387643344" style="color: #de7008;"></a></span><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="color: #9e5205; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2019/10/will-ivf-become-more-widely-legal-in.html" style="color: #9e5205;"><span style="font-size: large;">Will IVF become more widely legal in France?</span></a></h3></div></div></div>Al Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02232854038397912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748060798655400108.post-67290965373435197872024-03-05T05:44:00.000-08:002024-03-05T05:44:00.158-08:00Oregon is re-criminalizing drugs<p><span style="font-size: large;"> The war on drugs is unforgiving, and neither criminalization nor decriminalization seems to be a winning strategy. The NYT has the latest from Oregon, where there were high hopes for decriminalization and harm reduction, and where there are now second thoughts. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/01/us/oregon-drug-decriminalization-rollback-measure-110.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Zk0.xZC1.T4Qvb3NuvvoY&smid=url-share">Oregon Is Recriminalizing Drugs, Dealing Setback to Reform Movement.</a> Oregon removed criminal penalties for possessing street drugs in 2020. But amid soaring overdose deaths, state lawmakers have voted to bring back some restrictions. By Mike Baker</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"Three years ago, when Oregon voters approved a pioneering plan to decriminalize hard drugs, advocates looking to halt the jailing of drug users believed they were on the edge of a revolution that would soon sweep across the country.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"But even as the state’s landmark law took effect in 2021, the scourge of fentanyl was taking hold. Overdoses soared as the state stumbled in its efforts to fund enhanced treatment programs. And while many other downtowns emerged from the dark days of the pandemic, Portland continued to struggle, with scenes of drugs and despair.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"Lately, even some of the liberal politicians who had embraced a new approach to drugs have supported an end to the experiment. On Friday, a bill that will reimpose criminal penalties for possession of some drugs won final passage in the State Legislature and was headed next to Gov. Tina Kotek, who has expressed alarm about open drug use and helped broker a plan to ban such activity.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">“It’s clear that we must do something to try and adjust what’s going on out in our communities,” State Senator Chris Gorsek, a Democrat who had supported decriminalization, said in an interview. Soon after, senators took the floor, with some sharing stories of how addictions and overdoses had impacted their own loved ones. They passed the measure by a 21-8 margin."</span></p>Al Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02232854038397912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748060798655400108.post-9418498642011472232024-03-04T05:46:00.000-08:002024-03-04T05:46:00.257-08:0050th anniversary of Shapley and Scarf (1974), and of the Journal of Mathematical Economics<p><span style="font-size: large;">Now available online is the first in what I understand will be a series of papers commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Journal of Mathematical Economics. The paper by Shapley and Scarf appeared in volume 1, number 1. (Thayer Morrill and I will have a paper surveying the literature on the Top Trading Cycle (TTC) algorithm, which was introduced in that first paper.)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304406824000296">Housing markets since Shapley and Scarf</a> by Mustafa Oğuz Afacan, Gaoji Hu, and Jiangtao Li, Journal of Mathematical Economics, Available online 1 March 2024, In Press, Journal Pre-proof, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmateco.2024.102967</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Abstract: Shapley and Scarf (1974) appeared in the first issue of the Journal of Mathematical Economics, and is one of the journal’s most impactful publications. As we approach the remarkable milestone of the journal’s 50th anniversary (1974–2024), this article serves as a commemorative exploration of Shapley and Scarf (1974) and the extensive body of literature that follows it.</span></p>Al Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02232854038397912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748060798655400108.post-48354848182522531392024-03-03T05:09:00.000-08:002024-03-03T05:09:00.137-08:00Telephones and telephone operators, as telephone exchanges became automated<p> <span style="font-size: large;">Earlier experiences in automation may be helpful in thinking about current technologies. Here's a paper about automation that replaced telephone operators, largely in the early 20th Century. (But in 1980, when I lived in Farmer City Illinois, our telephone provider was GTE (General Telephone & Electronics Corporation), not AT&T, and they still relied in part on human operators.)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://academic.oup.com/qje/advance-article/doi/10.1093/qje/qjae005/7614605?searchresult=1">Answering the Call of Automation: How the Labor Market Adjusted to Mechanizing Telephone Operation</a> by James Feigenbaum and Daniel P Gross, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, forthcoming</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Abstract: In the early 1900s, telephone operation was among the most common jobs for American women, and telephone operators were ubiquitous. Between 1920 and 1940, AT&T undertook one of the largest automation investments in modern history, replacing operators with mechanical switching technology in over half of the U.S. telephone network. Using variation across U.S. cities in the timing of adoption, we study how this wave of automation affected the labor market for young women. Although automation eliminated most of these jobs, it did not reduce future cohorts’ overall employment: the decline in operators was counteracted by employment growth in middle-skill clerical jobs and lower-skill service jobs, including in new categories of work. Using a new genealogy-based census-linking method, we show that incumbent telephone operators were most impacted, and a decade later more likely to be in lower-paying occupations or no longer working.</span></p>Al Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02232854038397912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748060798655400108.post-39708018328733963632024-03-02T05:26:00.000-08:002024-03-02T05:26:00.257-08:00Planet money plus-- interview on repugnant transactions<p><span style="font-size: large;"> Behind a paywall :(, but here's some more of the interview that I did with Planet Money last month:</span></p><p><br /></p><h1 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #1d1d1f; font-family: "SF Pro Text", "SF Pro Icons", "Apple WebExp Icons Custom", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1em; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.065px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span aria-label="Extended Play: Al Roth on money and 'repugnant markets' (Planet Money+)" class="product-header__title" face=""SF Pro Display", "SF Pro Icons", "Apple WebExp Icons Custom", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: block; font-size: 24px; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: 0.023em; line-height: 1.25;"><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/extended-play-al-roth-on-money-and-repugnant-markets/id290783428?i=1000645919099">Extended Play: Al Roth on money and 'repugnant markets' (Planet Money+)</a></span><span class="product-header__identity podcast-header__identity" face=""SF Pro Display", "SF Pro Icons", "Apple WebExp Icons Custom", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: block; font-size: 18px; letter-spacing: 0.027em; line-height: 1.22226; margin-bottom: 2px;"><a class="link" data-metrics-click="{"actionType":"navigate","targetType":"link","targetId":"LinkToPodcast"}" href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #0070c9; letter-spacing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">Planet Money</a></span></h1><ul class="product-header__list podcast-header__list" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #636366; font-family: "SF Pro Text", "SF Pro Icons", "Apple WebExp Icons Custom", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: -0.065px; margin: 12px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><li class="product-header__list__item" style="align-items: center; box-sizing: inherit; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><ul class="inline-list" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; letter-spacing: -0.005em; line-height: 1.38462; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li class="inline-list__item inline-list__item--bulleted" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-flex; font-size: 1em; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-wrap: nowrap;">Business</li></ul></li></ul><div class="small-hide medium-show" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #1d1d1f; font-family: "SF Pro Text", "SF Pro Icons", "Apple WebExp Icons Custom", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; 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box-sizing: inherit; color: #0070c9; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; letter-spacing: -0.005em; line-height: 1.38462; min-width: 28px; padding: 7px 10px 5px; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none; text-wrap: nowrap;">Listen on <span class="we-button__app-text" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Apple Podcasts</span> </a><div class="we-button__app-subline" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #86868b; font-size: 11px; letter-spacing: 0.006em; line-height: 1.18182; margin-left: 8px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 140px;">Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher</div></div><p></p><div class="we-share we-share--allows-embed we-share--header" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #0070c9; display: inline-flex; height: 32px; margin-top: 0px; padding-left: 4px; position: absolute; right: -27px; top: 16px; transform: translateY(-50%); z-index: 1;"><button aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="menu" aria-label="Open sharing menu" class="we-share__trigger icon icon-sharrow" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; align-items: center; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: content-box; cursor: pointer; direction: ltr; display: flex; flex-shrink: 0; font-synthesis: none; font: inherit; height: 50px; justify-content: center; margin: 0px 16px 0px 0px; order: 1; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: left; transform: translate(9px, -9px); transition: color 0.2s ease 0s; vertical-align: inherit; width: 50px; z-index: 1;" type="button"></button></div></div><div class="product-hero-desc product-hero-desc--spacer-bottom-large" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 32px;"><section class="section section--no-padding-bottom product-hero-desc__section" style="box-sizing: inherit; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 19px;"><p data-test-bidi="" dir="ltr" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Repugnant markets. We heard about them from economist Al Roth in a recent Planet Money episode. These are markets that aren't allowed because people feel icky about putting a price on something. For example, it's basically illegal to buy and sell kidneys in much of the world. In today's bonus episode, Mary Childs talks with Al about other repugnant markets that didn't make it into the original show, like surrogacy and blood plasma. They also discuss how money can change relationships.You can hear that original Planet Money episode here: <a href="https://www.npr.org/1197956769">https://www.npr.org/1197956769</a> Show your support for Planet Money and the reporting we do by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. You'll be able to unlock this episode and other great bonus content. Regular episodes remain free to listen! Email the show at planetmoney@npr.org.</span></p><p data-test-bidi="" dir="ltr" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p data-test-bidi="" dir="ltr" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p data-test-bidi="" dir="ltr" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Earlier:</span></p><h2 class="date-header" style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #777777; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 10px 0px 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">hursday, February 8, 2024</span></h2><div class="date-posts" style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal;"><div class="post-outer"><div class="post hentry uncustomized-post-template" style="margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a name="5002094996755700834" style="color: #de7008;"></a></span><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="color: #9e5205; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2024/02/morally-contested-markets-on-nprs.html" style="color: #9e5205;"><span style="font-size: large;">Morally contested markets on NPR's Planet Money (including kidneys, revenge and insider trading)</span></a></h3></div></div></div></section></div></div>Al Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02232854038397912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748060798655400108.post-36449886863527496452024-03-01T05:28:00.000-08:002024-03-01T05:28:00.260-08:00Medical aid in dying--the ongoing debate in Britain<p><span style="font-size: large;"> The Guardian has this opinion piece, connected to the current debate in England about medically assisted dying, and the slippery slope:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/29/ministers-assisted-dying-disabled-people-euthanasia">I’m glad the debate on assisted dying is forging ahead. But few understand why it frightens so many</a> by Frances Ryan</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"<span style="background-color: #fef9f5; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;">On Thursday, MPs</span><span style="background-color: #fef9f5; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;"> </span><a data-link-name="in body link" href="https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/43582/documents/216484/default/" style="border-bottom: 1px solid var(--article-link-border); border-image: initial; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">published the findings</a><span style="background-color: #fef9f5; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;"> </span><span style="background-color: #fef9f5; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;">of a 14-month inquiry</span><span style="background-color: #fef9f5; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;"> </span><a data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/feb/29/assisted-dying-law-may-soon-diverge-across-british-isles-mps-warn#:~:text=The%20inquiry%20considered%20more%20than,sensitive%20and%20yet%20crucial%20subject%E2%80%9D." style="border-bottom: 1px solid var(--article-link-border); border-image: initial; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">into assisted dying</a><span style="background-color: #fef9f5; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;">. The inquiry – which attracted more than 68,000 responses from the public – made no conclusive statement but instead collected evidence as a “significant and useful resource” for future debates.</span></span></p><p class="dcr-vmkf2w" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: #fef9f5; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-size: large;">That debate is no longer abstract. Legislation is making its way through the parliaments of <a data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/dec/16/asisisted-dying-campaigners-hope-to-make-2024-tipping-point-for-uk-legislation" style="border-bottom: 1px solid var(--article-link-border); border-image: initial; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Scotland, Jersey and the Isle of Man</a> that, if passed, would enable competent adults who are terminally ill to be provided at their request with assistance to end their life.</span></p><p class="dcr-vmkf2w" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: #fef9f5; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-size: large;">...</span></p><p class="dcr-vmkf2w" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: #fef9f5; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-size: large;">"And yet it also feels a disservice to pretend that any of this is simple or that giving autonomy to some would not potentially harm others. It is deeply telling that among the many voices calling for a new assisted dying law, I have heard no human rights groups, celebrity or politician mention concerns – as advocated by many disability activists – that a law change could lead to disabled people being coerced into euthanasia, or feeling they had no other option.</span></p><p class="dcr-vmkf2w" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: #fef9f5; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-size: large;">We only need look to the countries that have legalised assisted dying in recent years to see these fears realised. <a data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5838868/" style="border-bottom: 1px solid var(--article-link-border); border-image: initial; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">One study reported</a> the euthanasia of a number of Dutch people who were said simply to have felt unable to live with having a learning disability or autism. Many included being lonely as a key cause of unbearable suffering.</span></p><p class="dcr-vmkf2w" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: #fef9f5; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-size: large;">...</span></p><p class="dcr-vmkf2w" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: #fef9f5; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-size: large;">"This is not to say that the UK shouldn’t go down the path of legalising assisted dying, but we must at least do so with eyes wide open. The right to die does not exist in a vacuum: it fundamentally alters the doctor-patient relationship, and risks making members of society who are already vulnerable that little bit more insecure. Perhaps that is a price worth paying to end some terminally ill people’s suffering. Perhaps it is too much to ask. There are no black and white boxes to tick labelled “right” and “wrong” – just the messy, painful grey of being human.</span></p><p class="dcr-vmkf2w" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: #fef9f5; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the coming months, politicians will correctly dedicate hours to discussing the right to a good death. Imagine, though, if they were to give equal attention to the right to a good life: from building social housing, exploring a basic income, investing in mental and physical health services, to – as the inquiry recommends – funding universal coverage of palliative care and more specialists in end-of-life pain."</span></p><p class="dcr-vmkf2w" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: #fef9f5; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-size: large;">#########</span></p><p class="dcr-vmkf2w" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: #fef9f5; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-size: large;">Earlier:</span></p><h2 class="date-header" style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #777777; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13.65px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 10px 0px 0px;">Friday, January 12, 2024</h2><p class="dcr-vmkf2w" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: #fef9f5; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="date-posts" style="background-color: #f6f6f6; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><div class="post-outer"><div class="post hentry uncustomized-post-template" style="margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><a name="3431606878291548683" style="color: #de7008;"></a><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="color: #9e5205; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 20.8px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2024/01/medical-aid-in-dying-and-slippery.html" style="color: #9e5205;">Medical aid in dying, and slippery slopes--the debate in Britain</a></h3></div></div></div>Al Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02232854038397912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748060798655400108.post-12695784518607852092024-02-29T05:34:00.000-08:002024-02-29T05:34:00.138-08:00Education (and age) versus fertility in the U.S. marriage market <p> <span style="font-size: large;">Markets change over time, including the marriage market. American marriages have become more assortative in recent years, and it appears that, in the 21st Century, women no longer pay a 'marriage penalty' (measured in spousal income) for graduate education.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/726238">The Human Capital–Reproductive Capital Trade-Off in Marriage Market Matching</a>, by <a href="https://bepp.wharton.upenn.edu/profile/corlow/">Corinne Low</a>, Journal of Political Economy Volume 132, Number 2, February 2024</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"Abstract: <b>Throughout the twentieth century, the relationship between women’s human capital and men’s income was nonmonotonic: while college-educated women married richer spouses than high school–educated women, graduate-educated women married poorer spouses than college-educated women</b>. This can be rationalized by a bidimensional matching framework where women’s human capital is negatively correlated with another valuable trait: fertility, or reproductive capital. Such a model predicts nonmonotonicity in income matching with a sufficiently high income distribution of men. A simulation of the model using US Census fertility and income data shows that it can also predict the recent transition to more assortative matching as desired family sizes have fallen."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Notable sentence about the <i>ancien regime:</i> "I provide a simple condition such that there always exists a man rich enough that he prefers a higher fertility but poorer woman to a richer and less fertile woman."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjM0J7vigEd06Cq4VPZUjkrOZ9LTMWxdeqOfGMtaIo0Rp2PPu6IZZDX9Bj4idEzsReGPFeodJ91RtVBIFtz4LnZxGbr4Sd_V5KzaYuU_3EYID6ymPqd9GN6dwrKXZ-rzlYkcVBVVhdfRaXGMYEgj9W9DQA9Tm4dKdA9Ez8cn20LcAPlHuH9q8MRr_dvVdA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="687" data-original-width="817" height="539" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjM0J7vigEd06Cq4VPZUjkrOZ9LTMWxdeqOfGMtaIo0Rp2PPu6IZZDX9Bj4idEzsReGPFeodJ91RtVBIFtz4LnZxGbr4Sd_V5KzaYuU_3EYID6ymPqd9GN6dwrKXZ-rzlYkcVBVVhdfRaXGMYEgj9W9DQA9Tm4dKdA9Ez8cn20LcAPlHuH9q8MRr_dvVdA=w640-h539" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">*******</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">And here's an earlier paper on fertility (through IVF) and age of marriage in Israel:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Gershoni, Naomi, and Corinne Low. 2021. "<a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20180780">Older Yet Fairer: How Extended Reproductive Time Horizons Reshaped Marriage Patterns in Israel</a>." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 13 (1): 198-234.</span></p><div><span style="font-size: large;">"Abstract: </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">Israel's 1994 adoption of free in vitro fertilization (IVF) provides a natural experiment for how fertility time horizons impact women's marriage timing and other outcomes. <b>We find a substantial increase in average age at first marriage following the policy change</b>, using both men and Arab-Israeli women as comparison groups. This shift appears to be driven by both increased marriages by older women and younger women delaying marriage. Age at first birth also increased. Placebo and robustness checks help pinpoint IVF as the source of the change. Our findings suggest age-limited fertility materially impacts women's life timing and outcomes relative to men."</span></div>Al Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02232854038397912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748060798655400108.post-29086100916974905292024-02-28T05:27:00.000-08:002024-02-28T05:27:00.148-08:00Global pacemaker retransplantation<p> <span style="font-size: large;">There are innovative approaches to global health care. Here is one, that involves reusing pacemakers recovered from deceased donors and refurbished for use in countries where pacemakers are too expensive for wide use. Unlike some of what we encounter in kidney transplants across borders, the legal bans that have to be overcome may not come from the war against the poor. A careful clinical trial is underway. There is also an unregulated black market...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Here's the encouraging story from Helio.com:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">A<a href="https://www.healio.com/news/cardiology/20240223/after-death-a-new-life-for-refurbished-pacemakers-in-low-middleincome-countries">fter death, a new life for refurbished pacemakers in low-, middle-income countries,</a> February 23, 2024</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"Lack of access to pacemakers is a major challenge to the provision of CV health care in low- and middle-income countries; however, <b>postmortem pacemaker utilization could offer an opportunity to deliver this needed care</b>, according to Thomas Crawford, MD, an electrophysiologist and associate professor of internal medicine at University of Michigan Health and the medical director of My Heart Your Heart, a cardiac pacemaker reuse initiative at the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"Crawford: The need is great. <b>Each year, somewhere between 1 million and 2 million people worldwide die due to a lack of access to pacemakers and defibrillators</b>. There is literature reflecting this. When you query pacemaker implantation data for the United States, it is roughly 800 pacemakers per 1 million population. When you query countries like, for example, Nigeria, it says four pacemakers per million. Quite a difference.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"Per capita gross domestic product is such that,<b> in many countries, a pacemaker costs more than a person’s annual income.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"Healio: What are the regulations around using a refurbished pacemaker?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"Crawford: <b>Pacemaker reuse is illegal in all jurisdictions.</b> The FDA states that pacemaker reuse is an “objectionable practice.” We know we can do it, but we need to develop partnerships with other entities to give us credibility. One of those methods to do this is by engaging the government. <b>FDA issues export permits for this type of activity. We created a protocol where we reprocess the device, working with Northeast Scientific, which provides the pacemaker cleaning and sterilization. We have received permission from the FDA to export them. We have to put a sticker on them saying “not for use in the United States.”</b> <b>We are doing this in countries in which governments will allow it. One of the limitations is needing a government letter from each of the recipient countries. We have about 12 countries now, and the collection of countries we are working with is purely accidental. It is not a normal methodological process. A lot of it is through contact with individuals and opportunities that arise.</b></span></p><div><span style="font-size: large;">...</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">"Healio: You are leading a randomized controlled trial called Project My Heart Your Heart: Pacemaker Reuse. What is the study design, and what do you and your colleagues hope to learn?</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">"Crawford: T<b>he objective of the clinical trial is to determine if pacemaker reutilization can be shown to be a safe means of delivering pacemakers to patients in low- and middle-income countries without resources. The target enrollment is 270 patients, all from outside the United States, who each have a class I indication for pacing and who attest that they do not have the ability to purchase a device on their own. They must consent to be randomly assigned to receive either a brand-new pacemaker, which we purchase, or a reprocessed pacemaker, for which we provide the leads and accessories. </b>Donated devices are inspected according to specific protocols that evaluate physical and electrical suitability, including battery longevity, for future use. Devices deemed to be acceptable are shipped to a third-party vendor, Northeast Scientific, for disassembly, cleaning and re-sterilization. There will be about 130 participants in each arm. We will follow those patients and report any adverse events. The countries that have contributed patients include Kenya, Nigeria, Paraguay, Sierra Leone and Venezuela. We hope to soon begin enrolling patients in Mexico and Mozambique.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">"<b>I have had clinicians outside the U.S. who tell me they removed a pacemaker device, cleaned it, reprocessed it and then implanted it in someone else — but the government does not know about it. This practice does happen and it is not regulated in any way</b>; patients and physicians know about it and keep it quiet. The difference with what we are doing and these other efforts is we bring it to a much higher level, because that is what the FDA requires. "</span></div><p><br /></p>Al Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02232854038397912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748060798655400108.post-55620052334082700512024-02-27T05:35:00.000-08:002024-02-27T05:35:00.156-08:00Stanford Impact Labs announces support for kidney exchange in Brazil, India, and the U.S.<p> <span style="font-size: large;">Stanford Impact Labs has announced an investment designed to help the <a href="https://paireddonation.org/">Alliance for Paired Kidney Donation (APKD) i</a>ncrease access to kidney exchange in Brazil, India, and the U.S. Here are three related web pages...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">1. <a href="https://impact.stanford.edu/article/stanford-impact-labs-invests-global-collaboration-increase-access-kidney-transplants">Stanford Impact Labs Invests in Global Collaboration to Increase Access to Kidney Transplants.</a> $1.5 million over three years will support solutions-focused project led by Stanford’s Dr. Alvin Roth and the Alliance for Paired Kidney Donation (APKD) by Kate Green Tripp</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"Stanford Impact Labs (SIL) is delighted to announce a $1.5 million Stage 3: Amplify Impact investment to support Extending Kidney Exchange, a solutions-focused project established to increase access to lifesaving kidney transplants.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"The team, led by Stanford’s Dr. Alvin (Al) Roth, who shared the 2012 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work on market design, and <b>the Alliance for Paired Kidney Donation (APKD) is working in close partnership with organ transplant specialists and medical centers in Brazil, India, and the U.S., including Santa Casa de Misericórdia de Juiz de Fora, the Institute of Kidney Diseases and Research Center and Dr. H L Trivedi Institute of Transplantation Sciences (IKDRC-ITS), and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"Over the course of the next three years, <b>the team aims to increase the number of transplant opportunities available to patients who need them by creating and growing kidney exchange programs in Brazil and India</b>, where millions of people suffer from kidney disease yet exchange is minimal;<b> and explore the effects of initiating donor chains with a deceased donor kidney (DDIC) in the U.S.,</b> an approach which could unlock hundreds more transplants each year.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">..."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">2. <a href="https://impact.stanford.edu/article/how-does-applied-economics-maximize-kidney-transplants">How Does Applied Economics Maximize Kidney Transplants?</a> A project aimed at expanding kidney exchange and saving lives puts Nobel Prize-winning matching theory into practice. by Jenn Brown (including a video...)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"APKD uses open source software developed by<a href="https://profiles.stanford.edu/itai-ashlagi"> Itai Ashlagi</a>, Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University, to facilitate the matching process for its NEAD chains, and they currently average 5 non-simultaneous transplants per chain.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">3. <a href="https://impact.stanford.edu/extending-kidney-exchange">Extending Kidney Exchange</a></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"In Brazil, our team has launched a kidney exchange program within Santa Casa de Misericórdia de Juiz de Fora and Hospital Clínicas FMUSP in São Paulo and aims to expand to facilitating exchanges between these centers and others with the ultimate goal of kidney exchange transitioning from a research project to an officially approved practice in Brazil.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"In India, our team has deployed kidney matching software and resources for growth to the Institute of Kidney Diseases and Research Center and Dr. HL Trivedi Institute of Transplantation Sciences (IKDRC-ITS) to support kidney exchange programs. We aim to develop an evidence base for potential updates to organ transplantation laws that expand criteria for who can give and receive lifesaving kidneys.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"In the U.S., we are working with Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to test the use of deceased donor-initiated chains (DDIC) so as to generate hundreds of additional life-saving transplants each year that are not currently supported by today's practice of utilizing a deceased donor kidney to save the life of a single person on a transplant waitlist. "</span></p><p><br /></p><p> </p>Al Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02232854038397912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748060798655400108.post-20083295660928186612024-02-26T05:53:00.000-08:002024-02-26T05:53:00.158-08:00Prison gangs, in Latin America and in the U.S.<p><span style="font-size: large;"> It's one thing to be able to capture and confine prisoners. When gangs are involved, it's quite another thing to control the prisons, or the ability of prisoners to continue to control gang activity outside of prison.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The NYT has the story, from Latin America:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/21/world/americas/latin-america-prisons-gangs-violence.html?unlocked_article_code=1.XE0.8T4T.ZdyosXJ5IODR&smid=url-share">In Latin America, Guards Don’t Control Prisons, Gangs Do. </a>Intended to fight crime, Latin American prisons have instead become safe havens and recruitment centers for gangs, fueling a surge in violence. By Maria Abi-Habib, Annie Correal and Jack Nicas</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"Inside prisons across Latin America, criminal groups exercise unchallenged authority over prisoners, extracting money from them to buy protection or basic necessities, like food.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"The prisons also act as a safe haven of sorts for incarcerated criminal leaders to remotely run their criminal enterprises on the outside, ordering killings, orchestrating the smuggling of drugs to the United States and Europe and directing kidnappings and extortion of local businesses.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"When officials attempt to curtail the power criminal groups exercise from behind bars, their leaders often deploy members on the outside to push back.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">“The principal center of gravity, the nexus of control of organized crime, lies within the prison compounds,” said Mario Pazmiño, a retired colonel and former director of intelligence for Ecuador’s Army, and an analyst on security matters.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">“That’s where let’s say the management positions are, the command positions,” he added. “It is where they give the orders and dispensations for gangs to terrorize the country.”</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">##########</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I wrote a related post in November (see below) about a Brazilian prison gang, and received an illuminating email from Professor <a href="https://polisci.brown.edu/people/david-skarbek">David Skarbek</a> of Brown University, saying</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"I enjoyed your blog post about the PPC Brazilian prison gang. I thought that you might be interested to know that the same phenomenon exists in the US as well. I'm attaching a piece I published in the American Political Science Review on the Mexican Mafia in Southern California."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Here's the link to that article:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Skarbek, David. "<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/governance-and-prison-gangs/3CF8FD3BC0BBE774F94F850B5D8311A9">Governance and prison gangs</a>." American Political Science Review 105, no. 4 (2011): 702-716.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Abstract: How can people who lack access to effective government institutions establish property rights and facilitate exchange? The illegal narcotics trade in Los Angeles has flourished despite its inability to rely on state-based formal institutions of governance. An alternative system of governance has emerged from an unexpected source—behind bars. The Mexican Mafia prison gang can extort drug dealers on the street because they wield substantial control over inmates in the county jail system and because drug dealers anticipate future incarceration. The gang's ability to extract resources creates incentives for them to provide governance institutions that mitigate market failures among Hispanic drug-dealing street gangs, including enforcing deals, protecting property rights, and adjudicating disputes. Evidence collected from federal indictments and other legal documents related to the Mexican Mafia prison gang and numerous street gangs supports this claim.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">#########</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Earlier</span></p><h2 class="date-header" style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #777777; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 10px 0px 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Tuesday, November 21, 2023</span></h2><div class="date-posts" style="background-color: #f6f6f6; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><div class="post-outer"><div class="post hentry uncustomized-post-template" style="margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a name="4972900702807331615" style="color: #de7008;"></a></span><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="color: #9e5205; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2023/11/balance-of-violence-prison-based.html" style="color: #9e5205;"><span style="font-size: large;">Balance of violence: prison-based criminal cartels, the case of Brazil's PCC.</span></a></h3></div></div></div>Al Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02232854038397912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748060798655400108.post-16313562301002376992024-02-25T05:42:00.000-08:002024-02-25T05:42:00.231-08:00Mark Satterthwaite interviewed by Sandeep Baliga (video)<div><span style="font-size: large;">After listening to this interview with the great Mark Satterthwaite, I now understand the independent origins of the Gibbard-Satterthwaite theorem, and the collaborative origins of the Myerson-Satterthwaite theorem. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">In the final ten minutes or so of the interview, Mark describes worthwhile future research directions (and methods:), starting just after minute 28:30, particularly about appropriately matching patients to medical specialists.</span></div><div><br /></div><div> <iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/Skm4lFV4F58?si=McbrFz8D2DWPRyYm" width="480"></iframe></div>
xxxxxxxx<div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Earlier interviews by Sandeep Baliga:</span></div><div><h2 class="date-header" style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #777777; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 10px 0px 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Tuesday, August 1, 2023</span></h2><div class="date-posts" style="background-color: #f6f6f6; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><div class="post-outer"><div class="post hentry uncustomized-post-template" style="margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a name="7179497799843289104" style="color: #de7008;"></a></span><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="color: #9e5205; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2023/08/ted-groves-interviewed-by-sandeep.html" style="color: #9e5205;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ted Groves interviewed by Sandeep Baliga (video)</span></a></h3><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><h2 class="date-header" style="color: #777777; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 10px 0px 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Friday, June 16, 2023</span></h2><div class="date-posts"><div class="post-outer"><div class="post hentry uncustomized-post-template" style="margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a name="2733865198572758000" style="color: #de7008;"></a></span><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="color: #9e5205; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2023/06/ehud-kalai-interviewed-on-past-and.html" style="color: #9e5205;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ehud Kalai, interviewed on the past and future of game theory</span></a></h3></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Al Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02232854038397912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748060798655400108.post-56418912978212333222024-02-24T05:54:00.000-08:002024-02-24T05:54:00.143-08:00Foreign surrogacy in Denmark is becoming less restrictive<p><span style="font-size: large;"> Above the Law has the story:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://abovethelaw.com/2024/02/denmark-passes-new-pro-surrogacy-regulations/">Denmark Passes New Pro-Surrogacy Regulations. </a>The new rules in Denmark focus on two areas of surrogacy. By ELLEN TRACHMAN February 14, 2024</span></p><p><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Lora, PT Serif, Georgia, Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;"> "</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Lora, "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 18px;">On February 5, 2024, the Danish government </span><a href="https://sm.dk/nyheder/nyhedsarkiv/2024/feb/mere-stabilitet-og-tryghed-for-boern-foedt-gennem-surrogataftaler-" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4b98f5; font-family: Lora, "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s;">announced</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Lora, "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 18px;"> new surrogacy-supportive rules scheduled to come into effect on January 1, 2025. The rules address parentage for families formed by surrogacy — including commercial (compensated) surrogacy outside of Denmark — as well as for families formed by altruistic (noncompensated) surrogacy within Denmark.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Lora, "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 18px;">...</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Lora, "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 18px;">"</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Lora, PT Serif, Georgia, Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">In Denmark, compensated surrogacy is illegal, and altruistic surrogacy has traditionally fallen into a legal gray area, pushing most hopeful parents who want to have a genetic connection to their child, but who are unable to carry a pregnancy themselves, to go abroad. The Danish government estimates that about 100 children are born to Danish parents each year by surrogacy outside of Denmark, while about five children each year are born within Denmark in altruistic surrogacy arrangements.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Lora, PT Serif, Georgia, Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">...</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Lora, PT Serif, Georgia, Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">"</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Lora, "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 18px;">Denmark has a history of denying parental rights to the intended parents of children born by surrogacy abroad. But on December 6, 2022, the European Court of Human Rights ruled against Denmark in </span><a href="https://eapil.org/2023/04/13/ecthr-overrules-danish-anti-surrogacy-judgment/" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4b98f5; font-family: Lora, "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s;">K.K. and Others v. Denmark</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Lora, "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 18px;">. In that case, a married heterosexual couple had twins with the assistance of a Ukrainian surrogate. Under Ukrainian law, both Danish intended parents were recognized as parents of the child, and the surrogate was not a parent of the child.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Lora, "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 18px;">...</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Lora, "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 18px;">"</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Lora, PT Serif, Georgia, Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">The ECHR found that Denmark’s refusal to recognize the parent-child relationship between the mother and child was a human rights violation — not a violation of the mother’s human rights, but of the two children, to have a recognized legal relationship with their mother.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Lora, PT Serif, Georgia, Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Lora, PT Serif, Georgia, Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">To its credit, Denmark is reacting to the ECHR’s definitive ruling. In the announcement by the Danish government last week, the government made it clear that the country’s new rules are intended to go beyond the minimum requirements of the ECHR to merely not violate the human rights of Danish children. (The bare minimum requirement would be to just allow stepparent adoptions.) Instead, the Danish government’s new rules go farther to protect children and their parents.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Lora, PT Serif, Georgia, Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">...</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Lora, PT Serif, Georgia, Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">"The new rules permit Danish family courts to quickly make a decision on parenthood in the case of a foreign surrogacy agreement, even permitting a court ruling to be made prior to the family’s return to Denmark. The rules also require that the court assess the best interest of the child, but with a presumption that it is, of course, in the child’s best interest to have a timely recognition of their parents.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Lora, "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 18px;">"Moreover, the court decisions are permitted to be retroactive to the birth of the child, permitting parents to have access to parental leave work benefits, inheritance rights, and all other benefits of that legal relationship. And, in contrast to a stepparent adoption, the new rules will allow recognition of the parent-child relationship with the mother or nongenetic parent even if parents have separated, or if one parent died before they had a chance to apply for parenthood.</span></p><p><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Lora, "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 18px;">...</span></p><p><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Lora, "PT Serif", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 18px;">"</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Lora, PT Serif, Georgia, Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">In a stated attempt to address the risk of child trafficking, the rules require that at least one intended parent be genetically related to the child. Additionally, the surrogate is required to confirm in a notarized declaration after the birth that she wishes to transfer parenthood of the child to the intended parents."</span></span></p>Al Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02232854038397912604noreply@blogger.com0