Amsterdam school choice: next year will be single tie-breaking deferred acceptance (instead of multiple tie-breaking)

In Amsterdam, the school choice debates have been resolved for now. Next year, there will be a deferred acceptance algorithm with single tie-breaking, which replaces deferred acceptance with multiple tie breaking. The reason is to avoid inefficiencies that could leave students wanting to trade places.
 Hessel Oosterbeek forwards the following press release:

Nu toch matching voor toewijzing van scholen aan nieuwe brugklassers
Osvo herziet besluit plaatsingsprocedure en volgt Amsterdamse gemeenteraad in wens tot matching
Datum: 27 november 2015


Google translate renders it into English like this:

Now surely matching for allocation of new schools graders
Osvo revises decision placement procedure and following Amsterdam city council in desire to matching
Date: November 27, 2015

The Amsterdam secondary schools united in Osvo match yet again to bring out high school students in a school of choice. In matching children fill a preferred list of several schools, and the computer most favorable and fairest possible distribution calculates. Last year was also matched, but according to a different algorithm. With the currently chosen variant will be more students in the school of their first choice, but there will be more children who are considerably lower on their preferred list. In any case, there is not the problem afterwards between students can be exchanged for a better result.

Osvo still goes first consult with the alderman of education Simone Kukenheim the practical assistance that will get the schools of the municipality for the implementation of the matching. Concrete will be requested from the municipality together with Osvo a central project, the information to parents and children and to take complaints to themselves.

A broad majority in the city council gave to know the alderman of education for this variant of matching. The alderman asked Osvo thereafter published the decision on October 29 to return to draw, to reconsider. With the amended decision in favor of the matching variant Osvo hopes for this year to be able to count on political and social support in the implementation, but also for the results of the placement.

The selected system is also preferred by a large group of parents who made ​​their wish to keep matching known through a petition, in a variant they call matching 2.0. This variant is referred to as DA STB or RSD. DA STB earlier this year in a scientific analysis for the evaluation Osvo compared with DA MTB, which was used in the 2015 matching. DA STB recently came second in the bus in the quest of Osvo to a procurement procedure for 2016. For the pros and cons refer to 
http://www.verenigingosvo.nl/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Evaluatie_Matching_simulaties.pdf

Osvo has always its decision to match last year defended by pointing to the starting point of an optimal and fair distribution of the few places in schools where more children enroll than there are places. After a storm of protest about the system, its implementation and information about Osvo selected after extensive review and in consultation with the municipality for a combination of items and match. It would be students in a first-round no preferred list can draw for their school of choice, followed by a relatively small group of about 500 children would be placed on matching the schools still places available. The second round would be conducted according to the system which now is put the whole group of students.


See previous posts:

Friday, June 26, 2015

School choice in Amsterdam goes to court over tie-breaking

Thursday, July 2, 2015

The Amsterdam court rules on school choice

Curious Minds interviews me about matching, market design, and a phone call that set me on my path (podcast)

CM 014: Alvin Roth on the Secrets of Market Design

By Gayle | December 14, 2015 | 0 

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Nobel-prize-winning economist Alvin Roth explores the markets that shape our lives, particularly our work, our health care and our schools. He also explains how key technologies enable companies like Uber, Airbnb, and Google to thrive. His insights extend beyond products, services, and features to include how successful companies attract and hire the most talented employees.

Alvin Roth is a Stanford University Professor, and bestselling author of Who Gets What – and Why: The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design. In this episode you will learn:

• how one phone call and a pivotal decision ultimately led to a Nobel Prize
• the important differences between markets
• the role of markets when it comes to marriage, loans, and more
• the role of social support in markets
• the ways the Internet and mobile technology shape market possibilities
• the three key factors that influence the success of companies like Airbnb and Uber
• the ways Smartphones are influencing markets
• how labor market findings influenced the market designs of today
• what game theory can teach us about getting into college and getting a job
• how market designers are applying their skills to the growing global refugee crisis

Alvin also shares what got him interested in the economics of market design and the potential this new field holds for helping us rethink what markets are and can do.

Climate change agreement, on Bloomberg Surveillance this morning

I discussed this weekend's climate change agreement on Bloomberg Surveillance from minute 33 to 41, which you can listen to hereDownload
or here: http://media.bloomberg.com/bb/avfile/News/Surveillance/vDuJ6SlgV5gs.mp3

More or less I said that the Paris deal, which may be all that was politically available, is complex and aspirational—it will be hard for each country to devise ways to cut emissions, it will be hard to measure what was cut, it will be hard to decide what it cost (and so to determine rich to poor country subsidies).

A simpler plan, but not politically feasible (not in the US and not in the world at large) would have been to agree to, say, double the price of carbon over the next few years, by taxing it, and giving back the money to individuals (by reducing other taxes, or by lump sum tax deductions), so that they would still have reason to economize on how much they drive, how they heat their houses, etc.  This would also give a boost to companies that want to produce clean energy and energy saving tech

Technology watch: does Crispr create a new class of repugnant transactions?

The NY Times has the story:
Scientists Seek Moratorium on Edits to Human Genome That Could Be Inherited

"An international group of scientists meeting in Washington called on Thursday for what would, in effect, be a moratorium on making inheritable changes to the human genome.

"The group said it would be “irresponsible to proceed” until the risks could be better assessed and until there was “broad societal consensus about the appropriateness” of any proposed change. The group also held open the possibility for such work to proceed in the future by saying that as knowledge advances, the issue of making permanent changes to the human genome “should be revisited on a regular basis.”
...
“The overriding question is when, if ever, we will want to use gene editing to change human inheritance,” David Baltimore said in opening the conference this week.
...
"The meeting was prompted by a new genetic technique, invented three years ago, that enables DNA to be edited with unprecedented ease and precision. The technique, known as Crispr-Cas9 and now widely accessible, would allow physicians to alter the human germline, which includes the eggs and the sperm, to cure genetic disease or even enhance desirable physical or mental traits.
...
"“If we are going to view certain applications of human genome editing as permissible, can we draw a line and not throw out legitimate medical applications in order to stave off those that are less palatable to most of us?” Dr. Daley asked.

"Other scientists suggested that the possible risks of human genome editing would be rapidly reduced as the techniques were refined. “Many of these technologies are improving so fast it’s hard to measure,” said George Church, a professor of genetics at the Harvard Medical School. Erroneous cuts made by Crispr-Cas9 can now be reduced to less than one per three trillion base pairs of DNA; the human genome is three billion base pairs in length.

“The concept of a ban on gene editing does not make sense,” Dr. Church wrote in the current issue of the journal Nature. “Banning human germline editing could put a damper on the best medical research and instead drive the practice underground to black markets and uncontrolled medical tourism.”

How do Uber drivers get home at the end of the day?

Uber's matching algorithm takes drivers' destinations into account at the end of their working day: here's Uber's announcement of the change in their matching algorithm (published in November).  Helping Drivers Reach Their Destinations

"For our partners, driving with Uber means having the freedom to set their own schedules. The reasons people drive are as diverse as the individuals themselves. Some drive to supplement existing income, others drive to save up for a vacation or to pay off a student loan–-and when and where drivers choose to log onto to the Uber platform varies just as much.

"That’s why we’re introducing a new feature that enables drivers to tell Uber where they’re heading so that we can find trips on their way.

"Starting this week in the Bay Area, drivers will be able to set their destination twice a day when they want to be matched only with riders traveling in a similar direction. Whether it’s commuting to the areas where rides are needed most, driving back home at the end of the day, or running errands around town, drivers can set their destination to earn fares that are along their route."

Sandro Ambuehl in the Washington Post: How incentives can change the way you evaluate options (and not just the choices you make)

Jeff Guo at the Washington Post has written a nice account of Sandro Ambuehl's jobmarket paper. Here's the WashPo story: The secret to why money is so good at changing people’s minds

Here are the first lines:
"It is illegal in the United States, and most other countries, to pay people for their organs.

It is not illegal, though, to pay people to eat bugs. So that is what Sandro Ambuehl, a doctoral candidate in economics at Stanford, recently did, to show how money can make you a little crazy."

Is "program hiring" a new name for unraveling?

The WSJ has the story: When a Job Offer Comes Without a Job

"Some companies are hiring first and figuring out jobs for these recruits much later.

"Amid a fierce market for college recruits, companies like Facebook Inc. and Intuit Inc. are making offers to dozens of hires without having a particular job waiting—or even, sometimes, a starting salary.

"Recruiters say so-called “program hiring” helps companies scoop up promising talent ahead of competitors and ensures their newest workers can stand a little uncertainty. College career officers say more students are getting offers this way.
...
"Entry-level hires are locked in more quickly, since recruiters arrive on campus armed with approval to make hires on the spot as they see fit, she said.

"This is important as employers press onto university campuses earlier and earlier in the school year.

"A candidate who accepts Intuit’s offer sets in motion a complex matchmaking process that includes salary discussions.

"Each new hire is assigned a recruiter who coordinates a series of matching conversations between the hire and various Intuit managers over the course of several months.

"The conversations are designed to align the hire’s interests and talents with an available position—and teams that help with campus recruiting often get first dibs on new hires—Ms. Carter said.

"Hires are given their assignments shortly before starting work, having received information about pay some time before that."

New market designers: class photos at Stanford and Harvard

Two end of class photos, for market design classes at Stanford and Harvard (where it hasn't been taught for a while, and was taught this year by Scott Kominers). The pipeline of market designers is looking good.

Book talk in Toronto, tomorrow, Dec 10

Big Ideas Speaker Series @ Rotman

Event Details

Speaker Series

Date:	Thursday December 10, 2015 | 05:00 PM - 06:00 PM
Speaker(s):	Alvin Roth, McCaw Professor of Economics, Stanford University; Co-Recipient, 2012 Nobel Prize in Economics; Author
Topic:	Who Gets What - and Why: The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, June 2, 2015)
Venue:	Desautels Hall (2nd floor, South Building) | map Rotman School of Management, U of Toronto, 105 St George Street
Location:	Toronto
Cost:	$36.00 plus HST per person (includes 1 seat at the session and 1 signed hardcover copy of Who Gets What - And Why)

Register Now

Having Trouble Registering?

Book Synopsis: A Nobel laureate reveals the often surprising rules that govern a vast array of activities — both mundane and life-changing — in which money may play little or no role.  If you’ve ever sought a job or hired someone, applied to college or guided your child into a good kindergarten, asked someone out on a date or been asked out, you’ve participated in a kind of market. Most of the study of economics deals with commodity markets, where the price of a good connects sellers and buyers. But what about other kinds of “goods,” like a spot in the Yale freshman class or a position at Google? This is the territory of matching markets, where “sellers” and “buyers” must choose each other, and price isn’t the only factor determining who gets what.  Alvin E. Roth is one of the world’s leading experts on matching markets. He has even designed several of them, including the exchange that places medical students in residencies and the system that increases the number of kidney transplants by better matching donors to patients. In Who Gets What — And Why, Roth reveals the matching markets hidden around us and shows how to recognize a good match and make smarter, more confident decisions.

Suspected organ trafficker arrested

YNet has the story: Turkish authorities arrest Israeli suspected of organ trafficking
Boris Wolfman, who was indicted in Israel but managed to flee the country, was caught at Istanbul airport; he is expected to be extradited to Israel.

"According to a report in Turkish newspaper Daily Vatan, Wolfman allegedly arrived in Istanbul from Bangkok to convince struggling Syrian refugees to sell their organs.

He had reportedly already started contacting Syrian refugees, and was making arrangement to operate on them in small hospitals in Turkish cities.
Earlier this year, Wolfman and six others were charged with organ trafficking and organizing illegal transplants in Kosovo, Azerbaijan and Sri Lanka. The offenses in question were committed between the years 2008-2014.
According to the indictment, those receiving the illegal transplant had to pay between 70-100 thousand euro for the organ, while the organ donors only received tens of thousands of euros.
Wolfman used an ad in Russian newspapers to draw out potential donors, who agreed to donate one of their organs for money due to their difficult economic situation.

He did not explain to the donors about the physical and mental risks they face, denying them of the information they needed to make the decision. After the organ donation in Kosovo, the donors were discharged without receiving any explanation about needing medical treatment or about the changes to their health situation. There was also no adequate medical supervision following the operation, and at least one teenage boy became paralyzed because he did not receive proper treatment after his kidney was removed."

Jean Tirole interviewed in the Financial Times

Tirole thinks both about French economists and the French economy:
French lessons from a Nobel Prize winner

"...Laffont and Tirole thought internationally. Tirole says: “We started teaching in English 20 years ago, when it was illegal.”
...
"...economists aren’t heard or understood much in France. Tirole explains: “In France, in most universities you specialise very early but you don’t learn any economics. France came to a market economy pretty late, too. If you think about France, a lot of the decisions were administrative.”
Would-be reformers such as Tirole or economy minister Emmanuel Macron get shouted down with the ultimate French insult: “Libéral!” This essentially means “Laissez-faire capitalist”. Tirole explains: “People don’t know what libéral means. The truth is I don’t know economists who are for laissez-faire, so to speak. They may be for more or less regulation.”
...
"Tirole sketches France’s looming economic triple whammy. ...Third, he says, the digital economy will quickly destroy many jobs. He adds, half-jokingly: “Maybe my job won’t exist any more. Maybe all teaching will be done from Cambridge, Mass.”
...
"But if the far-right leader Marine Le Pen becomes president in 2017, would that ruin his hopes for France? “Yes,” sighs Tirole. “It ruins the country’s image but also the country’s economics. Leaving the euro, nationalising firms, pouring more money into civil-service jobs, and stopping migrants and imports will make markets even more inefficient, will increase the public deficit, and we will lose the discipline of the euro. I don’t want to answer your question. I don’t want to think about it.”

Airbnb Replies (with some data) to the Report of the NY State Attorney General

Here's a 2014 report by the NY State Attorney General's office, Airbnb in the city

Short-Term Rentals Experienced Explosive Growth. Private short-term bookings in New York City on Airbnb increased sharply during the Review Period, registering more than a tenfold increase. The associated revenue also spiked, nearly doubling each year. This year, revenue to Airbnb and its hosts from private short-term rentals in New York City is expected to exceed $282 million.

Most Short-Term Rentals Booked in New York Violated the Law. State and local laws in New York—including the Multiple Dwelling Law and the New York City Administrative Code— prohibit certain short-term rentals. During the Review Period, 72 percent of units used as private shortterm rentals on Airbnb appeared to violate these laws.

Commercial Users Accounted for a Disproportionate Share of Private ShortTerm Rentals by Volume and Revenue. Ninety-four percent of Airbnb hosts offered at most two unique units during the Review Period. But the remaining six percent of hosts dominated the platform during that period, offering up to hundreds of unique units, accepting 36 percent of private short-term bookings, and receiving $168 million, 37 percent of all host revenue. This report refers to these hosts as “Commercial Users.”

Top Commercial Users Employed Rental Platforms to Run Multimillion-Dollar Short-Term Rental Businesses. Well over 100 Commercial Users each controlled 10 or more unique Airbnb units during the Review Period. Together, these hosts accepted 47,103 private shortterm reservations and earned $59.4 million in revenue. The highest-earning operation administered 272 unique Airbnb listings, booked 3,024 reservations, and received $6.8 million in revenue during the Review Period. Each of the top 12 New York City operations on Airbnb during that period earned revenue exceeding $1 million.

Private Short-Term Rentals Displaced Long-Term Housing in Thousands of Apartments. In 2013, more than 4,600 units were booked as short-term rentals through Airbnb for three months of the year or more. Of these, nearly 2,000 units were booked as short-term rentals for a cumulative total of half the year or more—rendering them largely unavailable for use by long-term residents. Notably, the share of revenue to Airbnb and its hosts from units booked as private shortterm rentals for more than half the year increased steadily, accounting for 38 percent of each figure by 2013.

Numerous Short-Term Rental Units Appeared to Serve as Illegal Hostels. New York law does not permit commercial enterprises to operate hostels, where multiple, unrelated guests share tight quarters. In 2013, approximately 200 units in New York City were booked as private shortterm rentals for more than 365 nights during the year. This indicates that multiple transients shared the same listing on the same night, as they would in an illegal hostel. The 10 most-rented units for private short-term rentals were each booked for an average of about 1,900 nights in 2013, with the top listing accepting 13 reservations on an average night.

Gentrified or Rapidly Gentrifying Neighborhoods Primarily in Manhattan Accounted for the Vast Majority of Revenue from Private Short-Term Rentals in New York City. Bookings in just three Community Districts in Manhattan—the Lower East Side/Chinatown, Chelsea/Hell’s Kitchen, and Greenwich Village/SoHo—accounted for approximately $187 million in revenue to hosts, or more than 40 percent of private stay revenue to hosts during the Review Period. By contrast, all the reservations in three boroughs (Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx) brought hosts revenue of $12 million—less than three percent of the New York City total
**********

Here's a recent NY Times story on the data Airbnb has recently made available:
Airbnb Says Data Dump Shows Misuse of Service Is Rare

"With its release of a trove of data this week, the short-term rental company Airbnb sought to underscore how the majority of its hosts in New York City are playing by the rules. The point is a critical one for the company, valued by investors at about $24 billion, as it tries to pacify skeptical lawmakers and regulators.

Of particular concern to officials are the Airbnb hosts who lease multiple apartments, renting them out year-round and distorting their market value in a climate of scarce affordable housing.

The anonymized information released by Airbnb on rentals between November 2014 and November 2015 showed that 55 hosts in Manhattan, the borough with the most listings, have five or more full units listed on the platform, a tiny fraction of the more than 18,700 units listed in the borough.

...

Airbnb said it removed more than 2,000 listings last year after an affidavit was filed by the New York State attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, saying that two-thirds of the apartments listed in the city were illegal sublets.

A spokesman for Mr. Schneiderman’s office said that after a review of anonymized data Airbnb provided in 2014, it sought the identities of 124 hosts, all of whom had a minimum of 10 listings on the site and were earning an average of $500,000 a year. In June, the attorney general’s office referred the cases, including about two dozen hosts who had indicated a willingness to settle, to four city agencies with enforcement powers.

Wiley Norvell, a spokesman for Mayor Bill de Blasio, said that after receiving the attorney general’s referral, “city agencies began assembling cases to hold violators accountable.”

“We expect to announce those results soon,” he said.

Preston McAfee peers into the future (and sees market design)

Microsoft offers predictions from some of its futurists (and apparently economics fits somewhere between AI and data science...:

From AI and data science to cryptography: Microsoft researchers offer 16 predictions for ’16> 

Preston McAfee

Chief Economist, Microsoft

What will be the key breakthrough or advance in economics in 2016?Economists are struggling to understand why the current recovery involves low-productivity increases, in comparison to past recoveries, and whether low productivity is a new normal. I expect this conundrum will be answered in 2016, and the answer could have important implications for government policies to boost growth. Of course, it may turn out that the problem is measurement error, and that we are growing normally.

Looking forward 10 years to 2026, what will be the major advance in economics?Over the next 10 years, the major breakthrough of economics will be in applications of market design, which improves the efficiency of markets using a combination of game theory, economics and algorithm design. We’ve already seen fruitful application in search auctions, spectrum auctions, kidney exchange and school assignment.

How would you complete this sentence: 2016 will be the year that…Silicon Valley recognizes that the value of Uber is its marketplace, not the data, but that is probably too optimistic. The big data bubble has longer to run.

Improving Schools in MA: conference in Boston tomorrow

The conference in Boston tomorrow looks like a nice mix of academic researchers and education officials:
 Leveraging Research and Policy to Improve K-12 Education in Massachusetts

December 7, 2015, 8:00am - 5:30pm

Overview:

A num­ber of impor­tant issues are now on the state K-12 edu­ca­tion pol­icy agenda. In the past few years, schol­ars have pro­duced a wide range of results highly rel­e­vant for this agenda. The con­fer­ence is meant to bring mul­ti­ple stake­hold­ers together for a dis­cus­sion of research find­ings and future work that will be help­ful at this vital time.

Audience:

Policymakers, researchers, non-profit lead­ers and edu­ca­tion jour­nal­ists will be invited.

Agenda:

Click here for the agenda.

Registration:

Registration is now closed. Any jour­nal­ists who wish to attend should con­tact Annice Correia Gabel (acorreia@mit.edu).

Location:Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
600 Atlantic Ave #100
Boston, MA 02210

Keynote Speaker:Roland Fryer, Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University and fac­ulty direc­tor of the Education Innovation Laboratory.

Conference Organizers:

Katharine Bradbury, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
Mary Burke, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
Robert Triest, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
Joshua Angrist, MIT and SEII
Parag Pathak, MIT and SEII

Contact:Please address any ques­tions to acorreia@mit.edu.

Among the talks are some that touch on school choice: 

Charters Without Lotteries: Testing Takeovers in New Orleans and Boston Atila Abdulkadiroğlu, Duke University Joshua Angrist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and NBER Peter Hull, Massachusetts Institute of Technology* Parag A. Pathak, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and NBER

Leveraging Lotteries for School Value-Added: Testing and Estimation Joshua Angrist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and NBER* Peter Hull, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Parag A. Pathak, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and NBER Christopher Walters, University of California, Berkeley and NBER

Overview of Unified Enrollment in American Cities Parag A. Pathak, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and NBER

The Handbook of Market Design--now in paperback

The Handbook of Market Design is now available in paperback: here's what the publisher (Oxford U Press) has to say about it.

New in Paperback

The Handbook of Market Design

Edited by Nir Vulkan, Alvin E. Roth, and Zvika Neeman

• Includes chapters by Alvin Roth, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics 2012, including research for which he was awarded the prize
• A comprehensive overview that presents the latest research in applied market design
• Brings together all major researchers in the area, across disciplines- economics, engineering, computer science
• Chapters on matching markets where there is a need to match large two-sided populations of agents such as medical residents and hospitals, law clerks and judges, patients and kidney donors, to one another
• Active and fast-growing area of economics, lots of research, theory, and applications
• No other book on this subject

and here's a recent book review...

Book Review: The Handbook of Market Design

 

Mark S. Rzepczynski

Categories: Economics, Equity Investments, Standards, Ethics & Regulations (SER)

The Handbook of Market Design. 2013. Nir Vulkan, Alvin E. Roth, and Zvika Neeman.

SIEPR Policy Forum, Powerful Tools: Innovation Challenges for the Next President,

I'll be speaking at lunch today at the SIEPR Policy Forum, 
Powerful Tools:  Innovation Challenges for the Next President

About the Forum

Innovation is moving beyond information to the physical world.   For this Policy Forum, we consider three innovation areas with great promise and risk - tools powerful enough to change the world around us.  

The first panel is on using market force to accomplish good - especially in areas such as energy use and climate.   Al Roth will follow with a related theme - some of his Nobel winning work on matching markets.  The second panel is on the power fo advanced genetics - especially the implications of the new "CRISPR" technology.  The third panel is on the economics and policy issues surrounding end-to-end encryption, and especially whether firms and product designers can and should provide "exceptional access" to governments.  This affects not only our communication devices, but increasing the "Internet of Things."

Agenda

11:00am
Using Markets for Good

Smart Markets for Energy Conservation -  Zach Gentry (Enlighted Inc.)
From Worst Case to Smart Launches- Tom Colvin (Stanford)

12:00 pm Lunch Speaker:  Al Roth (Stanford Economics, 2012 Nobel Prize Winner in Economics)

Who Gets What – and Why

(Lunch following speaker, provided to all registered attendees)

1:00 pm
Designing Life

CRISPR-CAS9: Designer DNA - Hank Greely (Stanford)
Intellectual Property and DNA - Mark Lemley (Stanford) 

2:00 Economics and End-to-End Encryption:  The Cost and Benefits of "Exceptional Access"
(The economics of secure online communications versus government backdoors for the Internet and Internet of Things)

John Mitchell (Stanford Vice Provost, Computer Science)
Herbert Lin (Stanford, CISAC)
(Additional panel members TBD)

3:00 Innovation and Jobs
Enrico Moretti (U.C. Berkeley Economics)

 Reception to follow.

REGISTER HERE:  PLEASE RSVP HERE

Masahiko Aoki Memorial Conference

Masahiko Aoki Memorial Conference

The Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) Japan Program with the Freeman Spogli Institute of International Studies (FSI) as well as the Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), and the Stanford Department of Economics will be hosting a memorial conference and service on December 4th and 5th in honor of the late Masahiko Aoki. December 4th will be a full day conference featuring topics within Masa's extensive field of study and research including theoretical and applied economics, theory of institutions, corporate architecture and governance, and the Japanese and Chinese economies. The day will culminate with a cocktail reception. The Celebration of Life on December 5th will be a gathering for family and friends in remembrance of Masa with a light lunch reception to follow.

December 4, 2015

Memorial Conference

Bechtel Conference Center, 616 Serra Street

Stanford University

Agenda

8:30am - 8:50am            Breakfast & Registration

8:50am - 9:00am            Welcome Remarks: Takeo Hoshi (Stanford University)

9:00am - 9:30am            Kenneth Arrow (Stanford University), “The Role of Organizational Structure in the Economy”

9:30am - 10:00am          Paul Milgrom (Stanford University), "Designing the US Incentive Auction"

10:00am - 10:30am        Break

10:30am - 11:00am        Koichi Hamada, Yale University, “Masahiko Aoki: A Social Scientist"

11:00am - 11:30am        Kotaro Suzumura (Hitotsubashi University), “Masahiko Aoki (1938-2015): Recollections of his Pilgrimage and Legacy in Japan”

11:30am - 12:00pm       Yingyi Qian (Tsinghua University), "Masahiko Aoki and China"

12:00pm - 1:15pm          Lunch

1:15pm - 1:45pm            Jiahua Che (Chinese University of Hong Kong) presenting Masahiko Aoki's

                                            "Three-person game of institutional resilience vc transition: A model and

                                              China-Japan comparative history"

1:45pm - 2:15pm           Miguel Angel Garcia Cestona (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona), "Corporate Governance and Employee Participation: some lessons from Mondragon"

2:15pm - 2:45pm           Herbert Gintis (Santa Fe Institute), "General Social Equilibrium and its Dynamics"

2:45pm - 3:15pm           Break

3:15pm - 3:45pm           Dale Jorgenson (Harvard University), "A Half Century of Trans-Pacific Competition"

3:45pm - 4:15pm           Avner Greif (Stanford University), "Comparative Institutional Analysis: China and Europe Compared"

4:15pm - 4:45pm           Francis Fukuyama (Stanford University), "Asian Kinship, Industrial Structure, and Trust in Government"

4:45pm - 5:00pm           Closing, Takeo Hoshi (Stanford University)

5:00pm - 6:00pm           Cocktail Reception

*Agenda is subject to change and will be updated as speakers are confirmed

December 5, 2015

Celebration of Life

Bechtel Conference Center, 616 Serra Street

Stanford University

Agenda

10:30am - 11:00am          Registration

11:00am - 12:00pm          Celebration of Life

12:00pm - 1:30pm            Lunch Reception

J.P. Morgan’s Holiday Reading List

J.P. Morgan’s Holiday Reading List

"The bank just released internally its ninth-annual holiday reading list, continuing a tradition of offering its private bank and investment-management clients a year-end roster of book suggestions. The list is focused on celebrating, giving and sharing, said Darin Oduyoye, who crafted the bank’s reading list idea and leads communications for J.P. Morgan’s asset management division.

"This year’s list of seven titles range from Jimmy Carter’s latest autobiography to the economics of matchmaking. It even includes a musical interlude: the cast recording of the hit Broadway show “Hamilton.” J.P. Morgan asset management executives from Dubai, Milan, Sao Paulo and New York, among other cities, met several times – and did a lot of reading — to narrow down the list from 516 titles, Mr. Oduyoye added.

"Here’s a look at this season’s picks:

A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety by Jimmy Carter

America’s Bank: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve by Roger Lowenstein

Hamilton: An American Musical (Original Cast Recording) by Lin-Manuel Miranda

I Am Because You Are: How the Spirit of Ubuntu Inspired an Unlikely Friendship and Transformed a Community by Jacob Lief and Andrea Thompson

Life is Good: The Book by Bert Jacobs and John Jacobs

Maya Lin: Topologies by Maya Lin, text by Michael Brenson, William L. Fox and Paul Goldberger

Who Gets What — and Why: The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design by Alvin E. Roth

Could the Swiss apprenticeship market use some market design?

A review of Who Gets What and Why from Switzerland suggests that the Swiss apprenticeship market is unraveled and could use some market design: Ökonomie als Ingenieurskunst, by David Staubli.

Google Translate: "With these findings, perhaps could also improve the design of the Swiss apprenticeship market. The current system suffers from the same problems as before the American job market for junior doctors. A mandatory cut-off date to Submit quotations from the part of the company would preserve the future trainees from having to be set too early and then lose the motivation for the school routine. The coordinated timing to Submit apprenticeships contracts would also increase market depth and the "matching" improve."

Remembering Douglass North with a photo

I hardly knew North, but here is a picture of him, still vigorous at 94, at dinner in California in June 2014, with Ken Arrow and me.

North, Roth, and Arrow, June 2014

Douglass C. North, Maverick Economist and Nobel Laureate, Dies at 95

Obituary: Douglass C. North, Nobel Prize-winning economist, 95

Remembering Douglass North