The design of markets, in Padua (video)

Yesterday I had the pleasure of speaking about market design in the Aula Magna of the University of Padua, where Galileo lectured.  Below is a video. I start to speak around minute 14:20.

The Design of Markets. Una Nobel Lecture (Two talks in Padua, on Tuesday and Wednesday)

 Following my talk in Rome today, I'll be speaking in Padua tomorrow and Wednesday, first giving a seminar on controversial markets, and then a public lecture on market design.

The Design of Markets. Una Nobel Lecture di Alvin Eliot Roth

"On Wednesday 8 May the University of Padua hosts the  Nobel Lecture

...

"The meeting opens with greetings from the vice-rector Antonio Parbonetti  and the director of the Galilean School of Higher Studies,  Gianguido Dall'Agata . The guest is introduced by Antonio Nicolò , coordinator of the Social Sciences Class of the Galilean School.

...

"The Nobel Lecture, which is held in English , is  open to the public . To participate, reservations are required 

You can also follow the meeting via  live streaming on YouTube .

---

The Padua Nobel Lecture by Alvin Eliot Roth is preceded, on Tuesday 7 May at 3pm, by a seminar aimed exclusively at professors, researchers, fellows of the Department of Economic Sciences of the University of Padua - dSEA .
The Economics Seminar  is entitled " Controversial markets and repugnant transactions " and is held at the department headquarters in via del Santo 33 in Padua.

Matching markets and organ transplantation at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in Rome on Monday

 I'm traveling this weekend to help inaugurate  the celebration of the 90th anniversary of Italy's Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Higher Institute of Health).  Below is their press release, which also notes that my talk will mark the 20th anniversary of the publication of my paper with Tayfun Sonmez and Utku Unver:

Roth, Alvin E., Tayfun Sonmez, and M. Utku Unver, "Kidney Exchange," Quarterly Journal of Economics, 119, 2, May, 2004, 457-488

Nobel Prize winner Alvin Roth opens the series of conferences dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the ISS

"Thanks to his work, 'crossover' kidney transplants are possible; next May 6th lectio magistralis in person and streaming.

"The cycle of scientific conferences that the Istituto Superiore di Sanità dedicates to the 90th anniversary of its foundation begins with a lectio magistralis by the Nobel Prize winner for economics Alvin Roth. On May 6th at 12.30 pm, Professor Roth, whose work has paved the way for the possibility of carrying out crossed kidney transplants between incompatible couples, will hold a keynote address entitled "Matching markets and organ transplantation".

"Exactly 20 years ago, in May 2004, Roth published "Kidney Exchange" in the Quarterly Journal of Economics (the oldest economic studies journal in the United States), the article in which the scholar exposed his "matching theory" by applying it to problem of compatibility between donor and recipient in living kidney transplantation and the need to find a sufficient number of donors for patients waiting for an organ. Roth demonstrated mathematically that, by cross-referencing the immunological data of all couples in which a healthy person wants to donate a kidney to a sick family member but cannot do so due to lack of compatibility, all patients could receive the organ they need. For his studies on stable allocations, defined by the Royal Swedish Academy as "a masterpiece of economic engineering", Roth was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2012.

"Starting from that first algorithm developed by Roth, today cross-kidney transplant programs between incompatible couples (called "crossover") have become a reality in many countries around the world: in Italy 132 transplants of this type have been carried out so far thanks to crossing of 85 pairs of donors and recipients, as part of a complex clinical and logistical program managed by the National Transplant Center which has so far involved 20 different hospitals. In 2023 alone there were 17 crossover transplants, of which 2 were carried out thanks to international exchange programmes: the first, last June, performed in Padua thanks to the crossing with two other Spanish couples, one in Bilbao and one in Barcelona, and the second in Vicenza, with an exchange organized with the Porto hospital.

"Professor Roth will hold his dissertation at the invitation of the National Transplant Center, the Galilean School of Higher Studies and the Department of Economic and Business Sciences of the University of Padua, the university at which the Stanford University economist will continue his series of conferences in Italy. The event, which will be held in the Pocchiari Hall of the Higher Institute of Health starting from 12.30, will be attended by Rocco Bellantone (president of the ISS), Giuseppe Feltrin (director of the National Transplant Center), Antonio Nicolò (professor of Economic Theory at the University of Padua) and Lucrezia Furian ( responsible for the Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Surgery Unit - Department of Surgical, Oncological and Gastroenterological Sciences of the University Hospital of Padua).

"It will be possible to follow the event in person (the request for accreditation can be made to ufficio.stampa@iss.it) and in streaming on the Institute's home page."

Kidney Markets--my debate with Debra Satz (video)

The video of my debate with Debra Satz on kidney markets is now available, see below.  

You can also find it here: https://humsci.stanford.edu/events/kidney-markets-alvin-roth-and-debra-satz

The question we debated was "Should we experiment with forms of regulated payments to individuals who provide a kidney for others?"  

The audience was asked to vote on that question before we began, and again after we concluded.

 

 To set the stage, in an early slide I spoke briefly about Debra's book  Why Some Things Should Not Be for Sale: The Moral Limits of Markets, and my book Who Gets What — And Why. The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design.   

If you happen to have read those books, I think you can already have a good idea of what we said, and what a friendly discussion it was.

Talks at Washington State University, today and tomorrow

Below is the announcement for a public lecture I'll give today at Washington State University, in Pullman, WA.  

Bertha C. and Roy E. Leigh Distinguished Lecture in Economics — School of Economic Sciences

"The School of Economic Sciences invites you to the Leigh Lecture on Thursday, April 11, at 4:30 p.m. in CUE 203 on the Pullman campus. The talk, titled “Economists as Engineers: Matchmaking and Market Design,” will be presented by Dr. Alvin Roth, the Craig and Susan McCaw Professor of Economics at Stanford University."     (another announcement here.)

And tomorrow at 3:00 I'll give an Economics department lecture on "Controversial markets and prohibited transactions."

Public lecture today at the Casa Central de la Universidad de Chile:“Quién obtiene qué y por qué: La nueva economía del diseño de mercados”

 Alvin Roth, Premio Nobel de Economía, dictará charla magistral en Casa Central de la Universidad de Chile [Alvin Roth, Nobel Prize winner in Economics, will give a keynote talk at the Central House of the University of Chile]

“Who gets what and why: The new economics of market design” is the name of the talk that Alvin Roth, 2012 Nobel Prize winner in Economics, will give on Wednesday, December 20, at 12:00 p.m., in the Hall of Honor of the Central House of the University of Chile.

The activity is organized by the Millennium Institute for Research on Market Imperfections and Public Policies (MIPP), the Center for Mathematical Modeling (CMM) of the University of Chile and the Ring Project “Information and Computing in Market Design” and in it Roth will speak about his renowned book in which he explains about the frequent “matching” markets, in which money is not a determining factor.

The talk will be in English and will have simultaneous translation into Spanish. [La charla será en inglés y contará con traducción simultánea al español.]

The talk will be in the Salón de Honor de Casa Central, which sounds like it will be an impressive venue.

Kidney Exchange: Within and Across Borders (video lecture).

 Below is a video of my 40 minute talk at Berkeley on Monday, on Kidney Exchange: Within and Across Borders, at the final workshop on Mathematics and Computer Science of Market and Mechanism Design,  at the Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute (SLMath). (But we warned or reassured, this isn't a mathematical lecture...)

Here's another link to the video if you have trouble connecting:  https://www.slmath.org/workshops/1082/schedules/34227

Simple Proofs of Important Results in Market Design-- (video of my talk at Berkeley's Simons Institute)

Here's a video of the talk I gave on Friday at the Simons Institute, on simple proofs of important theorems about matching, that have had impact on practical market design.

Kidney exchange, around the world and in Germany? German Health Economics Association (DGGÖ) webinar tomorrow

Tomorrow  I'll be giving a talk in Germany (8am California time, 17:00 in Germany), hosted by the German Health Economics Association (DGGÖ).  (Bob Slonim will be giving a talk in this series in the summer.)

My title will be Kidney Exchange to increase transplantation: around the world, and in Germany?

(One big issue is that kidney exchange isn't yet supported in Germany.) 

There is a webinar address at the above link for those who might like to listen.

New Directions in Market Design, NBER conference May 11-12, 2023 in Washington DC (and on YouTube)

 I'm on my way to this conference, celebrating a quarter of a century of practical market design by economists.

New Directions in Market Design, NBER conference May 11-12, 2023 (US Eastern Time)

LOCATION Convene, 600 14th St NW in Washington, DC. and livestreamed on YouTube 

ORGANIZERS Irene Y. Lo, Michael Ostrovsky, and Parag A. Pathak

 NBER conferences are by invitation. All participants are expected to comply with the NBER's Conference Code of Conduct.

Supported by Schmidt Futures

 Thursday, May 11

8:30 am Continental Breakfast

9:00 am Opening Talk: Alvin Roth, Stanford University and NBER ("Market Design and Maintenance") 

9:30 am Break

9:45 am Electricity and Renewable Energy Market Design

Overview: Mar Reguant, Northwestern University and NBER

Viewpoint 1: Martin Bichler, Technical University of Munich

Viewpoint 2: Richard O’Neill, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

11:05 am Market Design for the Environment

Overview: Estelle Cantillon, ULB

Viewpoint 1: Rachel Glennerster, University of Chicago and NBER

Viewpoint 2: Nathan Keohane, Environmental Defense Fund

12:25 pm Lunch discussions

2:00 pm Market Design in Healthcare

Overview: Benjamin Handel, University of California at Berkeley and NBER

Viewpoint 1: Mark Miller, Arnold Ventures

Viewpoint 2: Fanyin Zheng, Columbia University

3:20 pm Market Design for Organ Transplantation

Overview: Tayfun Sonmez, Boston College

Viewpoint 1: Nikhil Agarwal, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and NBER

Viewpoint 2: Jennifer Erickson, Organize

4:40 pm Break

5:00 pm Market Design for Education

Overview: Parag Pathak, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and NBER

Viewpoint 1: Derek Neal, University of Chicago and NBER

Viewpoint 2: Irene Lo, Stanford University

6:20 pm Adjourn

6:45 pm Group Dinner - JW Marriott

Friday, May 12

8:00 am Continental Breakfast

8:30 am Market Design for Public Housing

Overview: Nathan Hendren, Harvard University and NBER

Viewpoint 1: Winnie van Dijk, Harvard University and NBER

Viewpoint 2: Mary Cunningham, Urban Institute

9:50 am Market Design in Transportation

Overview: Michael Ostrovsky, Stanford University and NBER

Viewpoint 1: David Shmoys, Cornell University

Viewpoint 2: Wai Yan Leong, Singapore Land Transport Authority

11:10 am Break

11:30 am Market Design in Financial Markets

Overview: Haoxiang Zhu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and NBER

Viewpoint 1: Eric Budish, University of Chicago and NBER

Viewpoint 2: Scott Mixon, CFTC

12:50 pm

Lunch discussions

2:20 pm Market Design Tools in the Regulation of Online Marketplaces

Overview: Susan Athey, Stanford University and NBER

Viewpoint 1: Preston McAfee, Google

Viewpoint 2: Michael Schwarz, Microsoft

3:40 pm Artificial Intelligence and Market Design

Overview: Kevin Leyton-Brown, University of British Columbia

Viewpoint 1: Hal Varian, Google

Viewpoint 2: Nikhil Devanur, Amazon

5:00 pm Break

5:20 pm Closing Talk: Paul Milgrom, Stanford University

5:50 pm Adjourn

6:30 pm Group Dinner - JW Marriott

IgNobel Prize celebration today: laugh and think

 I'll be joining an IgNoble event this afternoon at Stanford, everyone is invited.

Ig Nobel Prize face-to-face

Health Data Science Center, Wednesday, March 22, 2023, 1:00pm - 3:00pm PDT

Stanford University Rotunda E241 (Chem-H + Wu Tsai Building)

This event is open to the general public

REGISTER HERE to attend

"Our esteemed founder of the prize (and the journal the Annals of Improbable Research), Marc Abrahams, will take us through the fascinating history of the Ig Nobel Prize, from its inception in 1991 to the present day. We will learn about the inspiration behind the award, the selection process, and his most unforgettable moments along the way.

"We will be joined by Professor Alvin Roth (Nobel Economics Prize 2012) who will share his insights in research and active blogging, as well as Dr. Genie Scott (Public Welfare Medal 2010) on her journey with Ig Nobel and improbable research.

"We will hear from some of the brightest minds in research today as our panelists engage in discussions about the significance of improbable research. Our panelists include Alvin Roth (Economics) and Genie C. Scott (Anthropology), past (Ig) Nobel Prize laureates who have made groundbreaking discoveries in fields such as physics, medicine, economics, public policies, and more. 

"Audience members will also have the opportunity to ask questions and engage in the conversation with our panelists, as well as sign up for a meet-and-greet with Marc after the event. 

"Join us for an unforgettable afternoon of laughs, learning, and thought-provoking discussions at the Ig Nobel Prize face-to-face Event!"

Provocative lecture on repugnant transactions at San Jose State University tomorrow

 My ambition is always to give a provocative lecture, and tomorrow evening I'll be officially doing so, when I deliver the David S. Saurman Provocative Lecture, on repugnant markets at SJSU.

Eric Budish on the economics of cryptocurrencies (video of his Harris Lecture at Harvard)

 If you haven't heard Eric Budish talk about crypto, this is your chance:  here's the video of his Harris Lecture at Harvard: The Economics of Cryptocurrencies by Eric Budish

(It was delivered before the recent collapse of the FTX exchange.)

My Morse Lecture at INFORMS 2022, tomorrow

 Tomorrow, Wednesday October19, from 8-9am Eastern time, I'll be giving the Morse Lecture at the INFORMS 2022 annual meeting in Indianapolis

Market Design: The Dialog Between Simple Abstract Models and Practical Implementation

I’ll review some of the elegantly simple models that underlie the initial designs for matching processes like the medical residency Match, school choice and kidney exchange, and the modifications, complications and  computations that were needed to get new designs adopted, implemented and maintained over the years.

You can read about the occasion of this lecture, my Philip McCord Morse Lectureship Award here.

Kidney exchange in The Times of India

 The Times of India covers my talk at the Indian Society of Transplantation meeting:

Alvin Roth for legal boost to kidney exchange pool in India by Chaitanya Deshpande, Oct 15, 2022c

 The site makes it hard to extract text, but here's a photo of some comments, which make me hope that some action may be taken:

Update: 

The Dr H.L. Trivedi Oration at the Indian Society of Transplantation (ISOT) Meeting 2022

Here's the meeting announcement:

ISOT 2022 NAGPUR

32^nd Annual Conference of The Indian Society of Organ Transplantation
2^nd Mid-term Meeting of Liver Transplantation Society of India
15^th Annual International Conference of NATCO
Dates : 12^th - 16^th October 2022 | Venue : Hotel Le Meridien, Nagpur

My talk, the Dr H.L. Trivedi Oration   is scheduled for 11:00am on Friday the 14th in Nagpur, which means I'll be giving it by zoom tonight, Thursday evening at 10:30 pm Pacific Time.

The presentation, which  will be about "Increasing the availability of transplants in India" is in honor of the late Dr. Hargovind Laxmishanker "H. L." Trivedi (August 1932 – October 2019), who I had the privilege of meeting,

Here's his obituary : 

Kute, Vivek, Himanshu Patel, Pankaj Shah, Pranjal Modi, and Vineet Mishra. "Professor Dr. HL Trivedi pioneering nephrologist and patriot who cared for his country (31-08-1932 TO 2-10-2019)." Indian Journal of Nephrology 29, no. 6 (2019): 379.

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Here's my concluding slide:

• India has enormous talent and accomplishment in living-donor transplantation
• To more nearly reach it’s potential, India needs to invest in recovering deceased donor organs.
• In the near term, it can build on it’s accomplishments in kidney transplantation, by 
• establishing national (not just regional) kidney exchange
• Continuing to explore international exchange for the hardest to match pairs
• Reducing restrictions on who can be an exchange donor
• Allowing non-directed donors and chains
• Allowing some chains to begin with a deceased-donor kidney
• Reducing financial barriers by increased investment in public hospitals and government health insurance, for organ donors as well as recipients

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Update: 

Public Lecture at Iowa State (video): "Who Gets What and Why? Economists as Engineers."

 Iowa State University in Ames Iowa has made available a video of a public lecture I gave there on September 22, called "Who Gets What and Why?  Economists as Engineers."

Economists as Engineers: Public lecture at Iowa State University tomorrow

 
I'll be travelling today to Ames Iowa, to give a public lecture tomorrow evening at Iowa State University (and to attend a market design conference there on Friday and Saturday)

"This event will be recorded and available for two weeks on the Lectures website at https://www.lectures.iastate.edu/recordings/available-recordings "

Access to transplantation around the world, at the International Congress of The Transplantation Society (TTS 2022) in Buenos Aires

I'm attending the 29th International Congress of The Transplantation Society (TTS 2022) | Buenos Aires - Argentina, and will speak in the first plenary session, on Access and Transparency in transplantation around the world.  I'll be the third of three speakers:

Plenary on access and transparency

 Monday, September 12, 2022 – 09:40 to 11:10

Transplantation in a moving world: Migrants, refugees & organ trafficking

Dominique Martin, Australia

Short Biography

Steps towards increasing deceased donation worldwide

Beatriz Dominguez-Gil, Spain

Short Biography

Transplant sufficiency in an unequal world

Alvin E. Roth, United States

Short Biography

Morse lecture at INFORMS next year: market design and the study of operations

 In 1974, the year I received my Ph.D. from Stanford's (then) Department of Operations Research, it was unclear in what discipline game theory would best thrive.   As disciplinary boundaries shifted, I found that I was an economist.  But I've kept open my professional ties to OR, and indeed I think of market design as the engineering part of game theory, and very concerned with the operational detail of markets and marketplaces. So I was glad to accept an offer to compose a lecture on this for an OR audience, since market design is now a multi-disciplinary field that draws many students of operations.

Here's an announcement that includes the following:

Philip McCord Morse Lectureship Award

The Lectureship is awarded in honor of Philip McCord Morse in recognition of his pioneer contribution to the field of operations research and the management sciences. The award is given in odd-numbered years at the Annual Meeting if there is a suitable recipient. The term of the lectureship is two years. The award is $2,000, a certificate, a travel fund of $5,000, a copy of Morse's autobiography, In at the Beginnings: A Physicist's Life, and a copy of Morse and Kimball's Methods of Operations Research. Learn more about the Philip McCord Morse Lectureship Award and how to be nominated on the INFORMS website.

This year, the lectureship is awarded to:

Alvin E. Roth, Stanford University

Who exemplifies the true spirit of Professor Morse and who, like Morse, has been an outstanding spokesperson for the operations research profession in operations research tools and ideas in designing efficient markets for a range of applications. This award is given by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences in honor of Philip McCord Morse, in recognition of Professor Morse's pioneering contributions to the field of operations research and of his devoted service to the field's professional societies.

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See also

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Market Design and Operations Research: an interview by the journal Mathematics of Operations Research