One man's gift of a kidney brings hope to four people*: A NEPKE simultaneous chain, starting with a non-directed donor at Dartmouth.
My close colleague Jerry Green flew two of the kidneys in this exchange, first one from Lebanon, NH to Philadelphia, and then one from Philadelphia to Boston, as part of the Angel Flights program. (He's a private pilot, and his wife Pam accompanies him on these trips as his turbulence control officer...).
*Update: that link doesn't work anymore, but here's the story
Monday, May 3, 2010
The slave trade had sellers as well as buyers
In a NY Times oped, Ending the Slavery Blame-Game, Henry Louis Gates Jr. writes about the slave trade.
"While we are all familiar with the role played by the United States and the European colonial powers like Britain, France, Holland, Portugal and Spain, there is very little discussion of the role Africans themselves played. And that role, it turns out, was a considerable one, especially for the slave-trading kingdoms of western and central Africa. These included the Akan of the kingdom of Asante in what is now Ghana, the Fon of Dahomey (now Benin), the Mbundu of Ndongo in modern Angola and the Kongo of today’s Congo, among several others.
For centuries, Europeans in Africa kept close to their military and trading posts on the coast. Exploration of the interior, home to the bulk of Africans sold into bondage at the height of the slave trade, came only during the colonial conquests, which is why Henry Morton Stanley’s pursuit of Dr. David Livingstone in 1871 made for such compelling press: he was going where no (white) man had gone before.
How did slaves make it to these coastal forts? The historians John Thornton and Linda Heywood of Boston University estimate that 90 percent of those shipped to the New World were enslaved by Africans and then sold to European traders. The sad truth is that without complex business partnerships between African elites and European traders and commercial agents, the slave trade to the New World would have been impossible, at least on the scale it occurred."
"While we are all familiar with the role played by the United States and the European colonial powers like Britain, France, Holland, Portugal and Spain, there is very little discussion of the role Africans themselves played. And that role, it turns out, was a considerable one, especially for the slave-trading kingdoms of western and central Africa. These included the Akan of the kingdom of Asante in what is now Ghana, the Fon of Dahomey (now Benin), the Mbundu of Ndongo in modern Angola and the Kongo of today’s Congo, among several others.
For centuries, Europeans in Africa kept close to their military and trading posts on the coast. Exploration of the interior, home to the bulk of Africans sold into bondage at the height of the slave trade, came only during the colonial conquests, which is why Henry Morton Stanley’s pursuit of Dr. David Livingstone in 1871 made for such compelling press: he was going where no (white) man had gone before.
How did slaves make it to these coastal forts? The historians John Thornton and Linda Heywood of Boston University estimate that 90 percent of those shipped to the New World were enslaved by Africans and then sold to European traders. The sad truth is that without complex business partnerships between African elites and European traders and commercial agents, the slave trade to the New World would have been impossible, at least on the scale it occurred."
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Prizes as a spur to innovation: a White House memo
A March 2010 White House memo "Guidance on the Use of Challenges and Prizes to Promote Open Government," promotes the use of prizes by agencies of the U.S. government.
"[I]t is Administration policy to strongly encourage agencies to:
• Utilize prizes and challenges as tools for advancing open government, innovation, and the agency’s mission;
• Identify and proactively address legal, regulatory, technical, and other barriers to the use of prizes and challenges;
• Select one or more individuals to identify and implement prizes and challenges, potentially in partnership with outside organizations, and to participate in a government-wide "community of practice" led by the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Science and Technology Policy; and
• Increase their capacity to support, design, and manage prizes, potentially in collaboration with external partners.
To support agencies in the execution of prizes that further the policy objectives of the Federal Government, the Administration will make available a web-based platform for prizes and challenges within 120 days. This platform will provide a forum for agencies to post problems and invite communities of problem solvers to suggest, collaborate on, and deliver solutions. Over the longer term, the General Services Administration (GSA) will also provide government-wide services to share best practices and assist agencies in developing guidelines for issuing challenges. Additionally, GSA will develop, as expeditiously as possible, a contract vehicle to provide agency access to relevant products and services, including technical assistance in structuring and conducting contests to take maximum benefit of the marketplace as they identify and pursue contest initiatives to further the policy objectives of the Federal Government. "
See also a discussion of prizes in a McKinsey report called “And the winner is …” Capturing the promise of philanthropic prizes .
"[I]t is Administration policy to strongly encourage agencies to:
• Utilize prizes and challenges as tools for advancing open government, innovation, and the agency’s mission;
• Identify and proactively address legal, regulatory, technical, and other barriers to the use of prizes and challenges;
• Select one or more individuals to identify and implement prizes and challenges, potentially in partnership with outside organizations, and to participate in a government-wide "community of practice" led by the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Science and Technology Policy; and
• Increase their capacity to support, design, and manage prizes, potentially in collaboration with external partners.
To support agencies in the execution of prizes that further the policy objectives of the Federal Government, the Administration will make available a web-based platform for prizes and challenges within 120 days. This platform will provide a forum for agencies to post problems and invite communities of problem solvers to suggest, collaborate on, and deliver solutions. Over the longer term, the General Services Administration (GSA) will also provide government-wide services to share best practices and assist agencies in developing guidelines for issuing challenges. Additionally, GSA will develop, as expeditiously as possible, a contract vehicle to provide agency access to relevant products and services, including technical assistance in structuring and conducting contests to take maximum benefit of the marketplace as they identify and pursue contest initiatives to further the policy objectives of the Federal Government. "
See also a discussion of prizes in a McKinsey report called “And the winner is …” Capturing the promise of philanthropic prizes .
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Herodotus on repugnance
Apparently it all depends on what you're used to.
From The History of Herodotus , III.38 (Written 440 B.C.E, Translated by George Rawlinson):
"Darius, after he had got the kingdom, called into his presence certain Greeks who were at hand, and asked- "What he should pay them to eat the bodies of their fathers when they died?" To which they answered, that there was no sum that would tempt them to do such a thing. He then sent for certain Indians, of the race called Callatians, men who eat their fathers, and asked them, while the Greeks stood by, and knew by the help of an interpreter all that was said - "What he should give them to burn the bodies of their fathers at their decease?" The Indians exclaimed aloud, and bade him forbear such language. "
cited by John O'Neill
From The History of Herodotus , III.38 (Written 440 B.C.E, Translated by George Rawlinson):
"Darius, after he had got the kingdom, called into his presence certain Greeks who were at hand, and asked- "What he should pay them to eat the bodies of their fathers when they died?" To which they answered, that there was no sum that would tempt them to do such a thing. He then sent for certain Indians, of the race called Callatians, men who eat their fathers, and asked them, while the Greeks stood by, and knew by the help of an interpreter all that was said - "What he should give them to burn the bodies of their fathers at their decease?" The Indians exclaimed aloud, and bade him forbear such language. "
cited by John O'Neill
Friday, April 30, 2010
It's 20 years since 1990 (and there's a conference to prove it)
A conference with the daunting title
Roth and Sotomayor: Twenty Years After has been organized at Duke next week by Atila Abdulkadiroglu, Parag Pathak, Tayfun Sonmez, William Thomson, and Utku Unver.
It turns out they're referring to our book*, not our demise. The conference website comes with a schedule and a list of participants.
I have to admit that 1990 doesn't seem so long ago to me, although a lot of game theory and market design has happened in the interval.
*This book: Roth, A.E. and M. Sotomayor Two-Sided Matching: A Study in Game-Theoretic Modeling and Analysis, Econometric Society Monograph Series, Cambridge University Press, 1990. (Winner of the 1990 Lanchester Prize.) Paperback edition, 1992.
Roth and Sotomayor: Twenty Years After has been organized at Duke next week by Atila Abdulkadiroglu, Parag Pathak, Tayfun Sonmez, William Thomson, and Utku Unver.
It turns out they're referring to our book*, not our demise. The conference website comes with a schedule and a list of participants.
I have to admit that 1990 doesn't seem so long ago to me, although a lot of game theory and market design has happened in the interval.
*This book: Roth, A.E. and M. Sotomayor Two-Sided Matching: A Study in Game-Theoretic Modeling and Analysis, Econometric Society Monograph Series, Cambridge University Press, 1990. (Winner of the 1990 Lanchester Prize.) Paperback edition, 1992.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Polygamous marriage in Gaza
A report from Gaza in The Economist focuses on a polygamous wedding agency.
"In his crisp fourth floor office, Mr Atiri and I leafed through four albums of photos classified according to girls aged 15-25, spinsters aged 26 and above, divorcees and the depressingly fat file of widows. Waiving his finder’s fee of 50 shekels, he offered me a form where I could list the specifications for my ideal bride, according to height, weight, eye colour, education, and financial means. No matter, said Mr Atiri, that I already had a wife. Polygamous marriages were increasingly popular—and now comprised half of his business. It was, he explained, a social service for women who might otherwise be left on the shelf or bereft of a family as well as a sign of fertility and status. After all, Gaza's burly interior minister, he noted, had six wives, though in accordance with Islamic tenets he had had to let two of them go. For the sake of appearances, Mr Atiri felt obliged to set a good example, though in a nod to gender equality had let his first wife select his second. (She picked a divorcee 12 years his junior.) "How can I promote Islamic dress, if I don't wear it myself," he asks."
...
"Poverty remains a biting issue for many–husbands who used to provide second homes for their second wives now house them in second rooms. "
"In his crisp fourth floor office, Mr Atiri and I leafed through four albums of photos classified according to girls aged 15-25, spinsters aged 26 and above, divorcees and the depressingly fat file of widows. Waiving his finder’s fee of 50 shekels, he offered me a form where I could list the specifications for my ideal bride, according to height, weight, eye colour, education, and financial means. No matter, said Mr Atiri, that I already had a wife. Polygamous marriages were increasingly popular—and now comprised half of his business. It was, he explained, a social service for women who might otherwise be left on the shelf or bereft of a family as well as a sign of fertility and status. After all, Gaza's burly interior minister, he noted, had six wives, though in accordance with Islamic tenets he had had to let two of them go. For the sake of appearances, Mr Atiri felt obliged to set a good example, though in a nod to gender equality had let his first wife select his second. (She picked a divorcee 12 years his junior.) "How can I promote Islamic dress, if I don't wear it myself," he asks."
...
"Poverty remains a biting issue for many–husbands who used to provide second homes for their second wives now house them in second rooms. "
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Dan Ariely in Forbes
Dan Ariely known for his creative experiments (and now famous for his book Predictably Irrational, and with another book on the way) is profiled in a Forbes column called The Empirical Economist.
The article begins with a picture that is worth a thousand words. (It suggests that Dan must have had a very classical economics education, if he read Mandeville's Fable of the Bees.:)
The article begins with a picture that is worth a thousand words. (It suggests that Dan must have had a very classical economics education, if he read Mandeville's Fable of the Bees.:)
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Artificial intelligence and market design
Abe Othman, a grad student in CS at CMU (who took my market design course when he was an undergrad at Harvard), has a new, not always pc blog, Constructive Economics.
Subscription dating sites: matching versus recruiting
The proprieters of the (apparently no-fee) online dating site OKCupid have a blog in which they analyze their copious data in interesting ways. A recent entry analyzes the business plans of their bigger competitors: Why You Should Never Pay For Online Dating
They argue that the number of members advertised by eHarmony and Match.com is very much larger than the number of their paying subscribers, with the result that most messages are sent to non-subscribers (who they hope will be enticed to subscribe in order to answer). This contributes, they argue, to a death spiral in which men (who send the most messages) find that most of their messages go unanswered, so they increase the number of people they message to, which makes the messages more formulaic, which decreases the response rate (because women are inundated with many impersonal messages from less than likely matches), etc.
Makes you think some kind of scarce-resource signaling would be useful, doesn't it?
They argue that the number of members advertised by eHarmony and Match.com is very much larger than the number of their paying subscribers, with the result that most messages are sent to non-subscribers (who they hope will be enticed to subscribe in order to answer). This contributes, they argue, to a death spiral in which men (who send the most messages) find that most of their messages go unanswered, so they increase the number of people they message to, which makes the messages more formulaic, which decreases the response rate (because women are inundated with many impersonal messages from less than likely matches), etc.
Makes you think some kind of scarce-resource signaling would be useful, doesn't it?
Monday, April 26, 2010
Misc. repugnant transactions
Repugnant transactions are those that some people don't want others to engage in. Here are a few that caught my eye recently.
Double fees buy spot on college’s fast track: Bristol deal with for-profit eliminates waiting list, raises questions of fairness
"Bristol Community College is teaming up with a for-profit education company to offer classes in popular allied health programs, a first-of-its-kind partnership that will allow students to bypass waiting lists — provided they pay double the tuition.
The initiative, which the college will offer with The Princeton Review at its New Bedford campus beginning next fall for some programs, has stirred criticism among some educators, who say providing a fast-track education only to students who can afford to pay more than $8,000 a year runs counter to the mission of the state’s community colleges: a commitment to access and equity for all.
“It’s just unfair,’’ said Joe LeBlanc, president of the Massachusetts Community College Council. “I would be quite upset if a student who could pay two times as much jumped to the head of the line to take Bristol Community College classes. Public education, in my mind, means you’re keeping your costs as low as you possibly can. We serve everyone, and in particular, the have-nots.’’
But college officials say the partnership is a creative way for the school to meet burgeoning demand to train health care workers. Enrollment in Massachusetts community colleges has jumped 10 percent in the past year, the largest increase in recent years. And education officials expect similar collaborations on other public campuses in Massachusetts and around the country in coming years.
“In an age of scarce resources, we’re just not going to get money from our state to expand our enrollments,’’ said John Sbrega, president of Bristol Community College. “Such public-private partnerships are the wave of the future.’’"
Drug addicts offered cash to stop reproducing: Addicts are being offered up to £200 cash to be sterilised so they do not give birth to drug dependent children.
"A controversial American charity is now offering the service to addicts in the UK and has set up a helpline for those interested.
Pro-life campaigners said the offer was "inhuman". "
How do morals change? (Yale psychologist Paul Bloom, writing in Nature):
"Where does morality come from? The modern consensus on this question lies close to the position laid out by the eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher David Hume. He thought moral reason to be “the slave of the passions”. Hume's view is supported by studies that suggest that our judgements of good and evil are influenced by emotional reactions such as empathy and disgust. ...
"All this leaves little room for rational deliberation in shaping our moral outlook. Indeed, many psychologists think that the reasoned arguments we make about why we have certain beliefs are mostly post-hoc justifications for gut reactions. As the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt puts it, although we like to think of ourselves as judges, reasoning through cases according to deeply held principles, in reality we are more like lawyers, making arguments for positions that have already been established. This implies we have little conscious control over our sense of right and wrong.
I predict that this theory of morality will be proved wrong in its wholesale rejection of reason. Emotional responses alone cannot explain one of the most interesting aspects of human nature: that morals evolve. The extent of the average person's sympathies has grown substantially and continues to do so. Contemporary readers of Nature, for example, have different beliefs about the rights of women, racial minorities and homosexuals compared with readers in the late 1800s, and different intuitions about the morality of practices such as slavery, child labour and the abuse of animals for public entertainment. Rational deliberation and debate have played a large part in this development."
12-year-old bride’s divorce prompts marriage age review in Saudi Arabia
"A girl aged 12 has won a divorce from her 80-year-old husband in Saudi Arabia in a case that may help to introduce a minimum age of marriage in the kingdom for the first time. The girl’s unusual legal challenge to the arrangement generated international media attention and scrutiny of Saudi Arabia’s record of child marriages.
It also prompted the state-run Human Rights Commission to appoint a lawyer to represent her. The commission has capitalised on the case and pushed for a legal minimum age for marriage of at least 16. "
Belgium to vote on face veil ban
"Belgian lawmakers are set to vote on a proposed ban on wearing face-covering veils in public, a day after neighbouring France proposed enacting similar legislation."
Double fees buy spot on college’s fast track: Bristol deal with for-profit eliminates waiting list, raises questions of fairness
"Bristol Community College is teaming up with a for-profit education company to offer classes in popular allied health programs, a first-of-its-kind partnership that will allow students to bypass waiting lists — provided they pay double the tuition.
The initiative, which the college will offer with The Princeton Review at its New Bedford campus beginning next fall for some programs, has stirred criticism among some educators, who say providing a fast-track education only to students who can afford to pay more than $8,000 a year runs counter to the mission of the state’s community colleges: a commitment to access and equity for all.
“It’s just unfair,’’ said Joe LeBlanc, president of the Massachusetts Community College Council. “I would be quite upset if a student who could pay two times as much jumped to the head of the line to take Bristol Community College classes. Public education, in my mind, means you’re keeping your costs as low as you possibly can. We serve everyone, and in particular, the have-nots.’’
But college officials say the partnership is a creative way for the school to meet burgeoning demand to train health care workers. Enrollment in Massachusetts community colleges has jumped 10 percent in the past year, the largest increase in recent years. And education officials expect similar collaborations on other public campuses in Massachusetts and around the country in coming years.
“In an age of scarce resources, we’re just not going to get money from our state to expand our enrollments,’’ said John Sbrega, president of Bristol Community College. “Such public-private partnerships are the wave of the future.’’"
Drug addicts offered cash to stop reproducing: Addicts are being offered up to £200 cash to be sterilised so they do not give birth to drug dependent children.
"A controversial American charity is now offering the service to addicts in the UK and has set up a helpline for those interested.
Pro-life campaigners said the offer was "inhuman". "
How do morals change? (Yale psychologist Paul Bloom, writing in Nature):
"Where does morality come from? The modern consensus on this question lies close to the position laid out by the eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher David Hume. He thought moral reason to be “the slave of the passions”. Hume's view is supported by studies that suggest that our judgements of good and evil are influenced by emotional reactions such as empathy and disgust. ...
"All this leaves little room for rational deliberation in shaping our moral outlook. Indeed, many psychologists think that the reasoned arguments we make about why we have certain beliefs are mostly post-hoc justifications for gut reactions. As the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt puts it, although we like to think of ourselves as judges, reasoning through cases according to deeply held principles, in reality we are more like lawyers, making arguments for positions that have already been established. This implies we have little conscious control over our sense of right and wrong.
I predict that this theory of morality will be proved wrong in its wholesale rejection of reason. Emotional responses alone cannot explain one of the most interesting aspects of human nature: that morals evolve. The extent of the average person's sympathies has grown substantially and continues to do so. Contemporary readers of Nature, for example, have different beliefs about the rights of women, racial minorities and homosexuals compared with readers in the late 1800s, and different intuitions about the morality of practices such as slavery, child labour and the abuse of animals for public entertainment. Rational deliberation and debate have played a large part in this development."
12-year-old bride’s divorce prompts marriage age review in Saudi Arabia
"A girl aged 12 has won a divorce from her 80-year-old husband in Saudi Arabia in a case that may help to introduce a minimum age of marriage in the kingdom for the first time. The girl’s unusual legal challenge to the arrangement generated international media attention and scrutiny of Saudi Arabia’s record of child marriages.
It also prompted the state-run Human Rights Commission to appoint a lawyer to represent her. The commission has capitalised on the case and pushed for a legal minimum age for marriage of at least 16. "
Belgium to vote on face veil ban
"Belgian lawmakers are set to vote on a proposed ban on wearing face-covering veils in public, a day after neighbouring France proposed enacting similar legislation."
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Faculty-student liasons repugnant at Yale
From the Yale alumni magazine: University bans faculty-student sex
"After more than a quarter century of debate, Yale faculty members are now barred from sexual relationships with undergraduates—not just their own students, but any Yale undergrads.
The new policy, announced to faculty in November and incorporated into the updated faculty handbook in January, is “an idea whose time has come,” says Deputy Provost Charles Long, who has advocated the ban since 1983.
In his decades at Yale, Long has seen many faculty-student romances. Most turn out fine, he says, but others are destructive to students. “I think we have a responsibility to protect students from behavior that is damaging to them and to the objectives for their being here.”
Previously, the university had prohibited such relationships only when the faculty member had “direct pedagogical or supervisory responsibilities” over the student. That remains the rule for affairs between faculty and graduate or professional students, and between grad students and undergrads."
"After more than a quarter century of debate, Yale faculty members are now barred from sexual relationships with undergraduates—not just their own students, but any Yale undergrads.
The new policy, announced to faculty in November and incorporated into the updated faculty handbook in January, is “an idea whose time has come,” says Deputy Provost Charles Long, who has advocated the ban since 1983.
In his decades at Yale, Long has seen many faculty-student romances. Most turn out fine, he says, but others are destructive to students. “I think we have a responsibility to protect students from behavior that is damaging to them and to the objectives for their being here.”
Previously, the university had prohibited such relationships only when the faculty member had “direct pedagogical or supervisory responsibilities” over the student. That remains the rule for affairs between faculty and graduate or professional students, and between grad students and undergrads."
Saturday, April 24, 2010
College rankings: how they influence applicants, and colleges
A recent paper discusses the impact of the US News and World Report rankings of colleges:
"Why is First Best? Responses to Information Aggregation in the U.S. News College Rankings," by Michael Luca and Jonathan Smith, both grad students at BU.
Here is the abstract: "We present robust evidence that the U.S. News college rankings causally affect college choice beyond their informational content about school quality. Using multiple identification strategies, we estimate that an exogenous one rank improvement leads to a 0.3%-0.9% increase in applications. We explore two potential explanations of the rank effect, showing evidence that students use rankings to improve coordination and to reduce cognitive costs of information processing. Using a novel natural experiment, we then consider the incentives that rankings create for schools. Our results suggest that the rankings caused significant changes to admissions policies, causing schools to favor students who do well along dimensions used in the rankings."
The final section of the paper, called "Rankings as a Mechanism Design Problem" concludes:
"While gaming of the USNWR rankings has come to have a very negative connotation, the rankings also present a mechanism that will only grow in importance over time. In particular, the mere presence of information provides incentives for schools to change their behavior. Further, USNWR provides one of the largest and most sophisticated examples of rankings as an accountability mechanism for schools. We have shown that the existence of the rankings led schools to focus more on attracting students who come from the top 10% of their class and have high SAT scores, probably at the expense of good students who performed worse along these observable measures. However, we have also shown that the rankings led to higher graduation rates. In net, the rankings have served their purpose by holding schools accountable for their decisions. The rankings created high powered incentives to which schools respond. This shows hope that information provision can become an important part of improving schools, especially in settings where there is school choice. As high schools and elementary schools around the country continue to look for new mechanisms in the challenging problem of school accountability, USNWR can help to highlight some of the positive and negative consequences that we should expect to see.
"Why is First Best? Responses to Information Aggregation in the U.S. News College Rankings," by Michael Luca and Jonathan Smith, both grad students at BU.
Here is the abstract: "We present robust evidence that the U.S. News college rankings causally affect college choice beyond their informational content about school quality. Using multiple identification strategies, we estimate that an exogenous one rank improvement leads to a 0.3%-0.9% increase in applications. We explore two potential explanations of the rank effect, showing evidence that students use rankings to improve coordination and to reduce cognitive costs of information processing. Using a novel natural experiment, we then consider the incentives that rankings create for schools. Our results suggest that the rankings caused significant changes to admissions policies, causing schools to favor students who do well along dimensions used in the rankings."
The final section of the paper, called "Rankings as a Mechanism Design Problem" concludes:
"While gaming of the USNWR rankings has come to have a very negative connotation, the rankings also present a mechanism that will only grow in importance over time. In particular, the mere presence of information provides incentives for schools to change their behavior. Further, USNWR provides one of the largest and most sophisticated examples of rankings as an accountability mechanism for schools. We have shown that the existence of the rankings led schools to focus more on attracting students who come from the top 10% of their class and have high SAT scores, probably at the expense of good students who performed worse along these observable measures. However, we have also shown that the rankings led to higher graduation rates. In net, the rankings have served their purpose by holding schools accountable for their decisions. The rankings created high powered incentives to which schools respond. This shows hope that information provision can become an important part of improving schools, especially in settings where there is school choice. As high schools and elementary schools around the country continue to look for new mechanisms in the challenging problem of school accountability, USNWR can help to highlight some of the positive and negative consequences that we should expect to see.
Assortative dating
Specialty dating sites are nothing new; and here's a story about one that specializes in beauty: Beautiful dating events: ‘It’s not shallow to say I like beautiful people’
To join Beautifulpeople.com you submit a photo, and members vote on your looks.
I wonder if this works better than sites that aim to match complements.
To join Beautifulpeople.com you submit a photo, and members vote on your looks.
I wonder if this works better than sites that aim to match complements.
Friday, April 23, 2010
More on kidney donation and social networking
It continues to look like social networking may become big for kidney donation. Here's a recent story from New England: Conn. mayor donates kidney to Facebook friend
"Sanchez, a 44-year-old father whose kidneys were failing because of diabetes, sent out the request on Facebook only hesitantly and on his doctor's suggestion. He worried people might pity him -- and certainly hadn't pinned his hopes on finding a donor that way.
He didn't have long to wait. Capone Almon was the first person to respond.
"I sent him a private message and just said, 'Hey, I'll try. I'll get tested,'" Capone Almon said Wednesday. "I really felt from the very beginning that I was going to be a match and a donor. I don't know why, but I just knew it."
Sanchez had no such certainty.
"I thought she was joking. The mayor of East Haven would offer me her kidney?" said Sanchez, an office administrator. "She responded back and said, 'I am serious, I am willing to get tested.'"
...
"Capone Almon, a Democrat, was running for a second term as mayor at the time but kept the details of her medical plans a secret. She won the election as they awaited word on when she could donate the kidney, saying they grew as close as family during the lull.
"I know he voted for me, too," she joked.
The operation was set only after Capone Almon passed a battery of tests and was given a long explanation of the process, which involved three small incisions near her ribcage and a scar similar to that of a cesarean section.
"What the doctors said to me is, 'Your recipient is already sick and we're not going to make you sick to make him somewhat better,'" she said. "They do not compromise the donor's health in any way, shape or form."
Their tenuous connection was cemented into a lasting bond April 8, when doctors at Yale-New Haven Hospital removed Capone Almon's left kidney and transplanted it into Sanchez.
They were released from the hospital in less than a week and are expected to make full recoveries. His insurance paid for both their surgeries, and the mayor is back on the job in this middle-class city of about 30,000."
HT: Alexander Ruiz
"Sanchez, a 44-year-old father whose kidneys were failing because of diabetes, sent out the request on Facebook only hesitantly and on his doctor's suggestion. He worried people might pity him -- and certainly hadn't pinned his hopes on finding a donor that way.
He didn't have long to wait. Capone Almon was the first person to respond.
"I sent him a private message and just said, 'Hey, I'll try. I'll get tested,'" Capone Almon said Wednesday. "I really felt from the very beginning that I was going to be a match and a donor. I don't know why, but I just knew it."
Sanchez had no such certainty.
"I thought she was joking. The mayor of East Haven would offer me her kidney?" said Sanchez, an office administrator. "She responded back and said, 'I am serious, I am willing to get tested.'"
...
"Capone Almon, a Democrat, was running for a second term as mayor at the time but kept the details of her medical plans a secret. She won the election as they awaited word on when she could donate the kidney, saying they grew as close as family during the lull.
"I know he voted for me, too," she joked.
The operation was set only after Capone Almon passed a battery of tests and was given a long explanation of the process, which involved three small incisions near her ribcage and a scar similar to that of a cesarean section.
"What the doctors said to me is, 'Your recipient is already sick and we're not going to make you sick to make him somewhat better,'" she said. "They do not compromise the donor's health in any way, shape or form."
Their tenuous connection was cemented into a lasting bond April 8, when doctors at Yale-New Haven Hospital removed Capone Almon's left kidney and transplanted it into Sanchez.
They were released from the hospital in less than a week and are expected to make full recoveries. His insurance paid for both their surgeries, and the mayor is back on the job in this middle-class city of about 30,000."
HT: Alexander Ruiz
Thursday, April 22, 2010
The WSJ on the football draft and market design
Writing in the Sports section of the Wall Street Journal, Reed Albergotti considers the NFL player draft, and some possible alternatives.
Why the NFL Draft Drives Economists Crazy
Fixed Costs, Variable Talent and Changes in the College Game Make Big Mistakes Unavoidable; Time for an Auction?
In an accompanying graphic, he writes "Harvard researchers Lucas Coffman, Itai Ashlagi, and Itay Fainmesser came up with an alternative based on an idea called a simultaneous ascending auction."
Along the way, the article has some nice things to say about market design.
"Thanks to market design, medical-school students are matched with hospitals through a complicated computer algorithm. Governments use "communal auctions" to distribute things like cellular bandwidth to telecommunications companies. Even the New York City public schools have used market economics to ensure parity in its school-choice system. "
...
"Three researchers at Harvard Business School—who studied under Alvin Roth, a Harvard professor and a pioneer in market-design theory—have proposed an alternative to the NFL draft.
Under their plan, all 32 teams would be given seven picks. They would have to abide by a spending cap that would go higher to lower—with the worst team (based on its record the previous season) having the most money to spend. When the bidding opened, the most sought-after players would draw multiple bids. Teams could then raise their bid as high as they'd like for a player they coveted.
Theoretically, a team could get any player it wanted—so long as it was prepared to pinch pennies on everyone else. Meanwhile, a team that didn't want to break the bank on any particular player could pick up lots of useful parts by spreading its money around evenly. Teams could also thrive by focusing on the bidding and looking for bargains.
"I think that it would significantly help teams get the right guys," said Lucas Coffman, one of the study's authors. If nothing else, Mr. Coffman said, the auction format might be more exciting than the draft, which allows for long gaps between picks.
In any case, there's some evidence the draft could be the next fix for a league that fixes everything. One NFL executive said patience is running thin. "There's a huge trail littered with guys who got the big dollars but were a bust," this person said."
Postscript: Luke Coffman, Itai Ashlagi, and Itay Fainmesser were all on a differently organized labor market this year, and will be at Ohio State, MIT Sloan, and Brown next year.
For another take on the design of the NFL labor market, by another recent Harvard grad Gregor Matvos, see his paper "Renegotiation Design: Evidence from NFL roster bonuses."
Update: Luke Coffman points out that the allocation of tickets to attend tonight's NFL draft could use some market design, and he points me to this, on Craigslist.
Experienced line sitter available to get tickets for NFL Draft - $75 (Midtown)
"I am an experienced line sitter who has worked many events. I am always on line early to secure tickets. I will be available to stand in line for tickets for the 1st 2 nights of the NFL Draft at Radio City Music hall. The procedure is as follows I will line up the evening before to get my wristband and will be back on line in order to get the tickets at 5:15 the day of the draft. The gates at Radio City will open at 6 p.m. each night. My charge for this service is $75 per ticket I can also bring people with me to secure extra tickets if you need more than 1, Please reply with the night(S) you want tickets for and how many tickets you need. Round 1 will be held Thursday night April 22nd and rounds 2-3 will be held Friday April 23rd. "
Why the NFL Draft Drives Economists Crazy
Fixed Costs, Variable Talent and Changes in the College Game Make Big Mistakes Unavoidable; Time for an Auction?
In an accompanying graphic, he writes "Harvard researchers Lucas Coffman, Itai Ashlagi, and Itay Fainmesser came up with an alternative based on an idea called a simultaneous ascending auction."
Along the way, the article has some nice things to say about market design.
"Thanks to market design, medical-school students are matched with hospitals through a complicated computer algorithm. Governments use "communal auctions" to distribute things like cellular bandwidth to telecommunications companies. Even the New York City public schools have used market economics to ensure parity in its school-choice system. "
...
"Three researchers at Harvard Business School—who studied under Alvin Roth, a Harvard professor and a pioneer in market-design theory—have proposed an alternative to the NFL draft.
Under their plan, all 32 teams would be given seven picks. They would have to abide by a spending cap that would go higher to lower—with the worst team (based on its record the previous season) having the most money to spend. When the bidding opened, the most sought-after players would draw multiple bids. Teams could then raise their bid as high as they'd like for a player they coveted.
Theoretically, a team could get any player it wanted—so long as it was prepared to pinch pennies on everyone else. Meanwhile, a team that didn't want to break the bank on any particular player could pick up lots of useful parts by spreading its money around evenly. Teams could also thrive by focusing on the bidding and looking for bargains.
"I think that it would significantly help teams get the right guys," said Lucas Coffman, one of the study's authors. If nothing else, Mr. Coffman said, the auction format might be more exciting than the draft, which allows for long gaps between picks.
In any case, there's some evidence the draft could be the next fix for a league that fixes everything. One NFL executive said patience is running thin. "There's a huge trail littered with guys who got the big dollars but were a bust," this person said."
Postscript: Luke Coffman, Itai Ashlagi, and Itay Fainmesser were all on a differently organized labor market this year, and will be at Ohio State, MIT Sloan, and Brown next year.
For another take on the design of the NFL labor market, by another recent Harvard grad Gregor Matvos, see his paper "Renegotiation Design: Evidence from NFL roster bonuses."
Update: Luke Coffman points out that the allocation of tickets to attend tonight's NFL draft could use some market design, and he points me to this, on Craigslist.
Experienced line sitter available to get tickets for NFL Draft - $75 (Midtown)
"I am an experienced line sitter who has worked many events. I am always on line early to secure tickets. I will be available to stand in line for tickets for the 1st 2 nights of the NFL Draft at Radio City Music hall. The procedure is as follows I will line up the evening before to get my wristband and will be back on line in order to get the tickets at 5:15 the day of the draft. The gates at Radio City will open at 6 p.m. each night. My charge for this service is $75 per ticket I can also bring people with me to secure extra tickets if you need more than 1, Please reply with the night(S) you want tickets for and how many tickets you need. Round 1 will be held Thursday night April 22nd and rounds 2-3 will be held Friday April 23rd. "
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
BBC on Suppliers of Human Bodies
The BBC has aired a 20 minute piece on Suppliers of Human Bodies . You can listen to it here. The first interviewee is my HBS colleague Michel Anteby, largely about his article A Market for Human Cadavers in All but Name?
The second interviewee is Brent Bardsley, of Anatomy Gifts Registry, part of the not-for-profit Anatomic Gift Foundation.
The interviewer is largely horrified ("trading in human flesh..." "money shouldn't be involved here..." "an unsavory business..."), but the interviewees help put the issues in perspective (and the law regards human tissues as an "anatomical gift").
The second interviewee is Brent Bardsley, of Anatomy Gifts Registry, part of the not-for-profit Anatomic Gift Foundation.
The interviewer is largely horrified ("trading in human flesh..." "money shouldn't be involved here..." "an unsavory business..."), but the interviewees help put the issues in perspective (and the law regards human tissues as an "anatomical gift").
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Games, a new online game theory journal
This announcement came in today's email.
Dear All,
The first issue of Games, dated March 2010, has been published and is available under http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4336/1/1/
This first issue shows that, contrary to generally accepted practices, quick but rigorous refereeing and quick publication are feasible also in game theory. Counting both accepted and rejected papers, the average time from submission to first editorial response is currently 34 days, i.e. under 5 weeks. Concentrating on ultimately accepted papers, the overall average time from submission to publication online is currently 61 days. For me,
more instructive that these numbers have been the anecdotes. For example, I was astonished to see that it is perfectly possible to get highly detailed referee reports on a 60‐page, mathematically dense paper within a few weeks, and from established referees. Another rewarding experience concerns the reaction of authors, as for example when I asked an author of an experimental paper to conduct a full‐scale replication, expecting the revision to take months, and received the revision including the replication in a few weeks. Reasonable speed appears to be contagious.
It seems that the editorial delays we have grown used to are just an established but highly inefficient convention‐‐‐nothing more. Still, transitions from an inefficient equilibrium to a more efficient one can be notoriously difficult to implement. The first (short) issue has been completed, and the first paper in issue 2 is
already out, but we are still a long way from establishing the journal and the associated quick refereeing process. For this, I would like to ask for your help.
What can you do for the journal? First, talk about it and encourage good researchers to submit, quoting the speed of the editorial process. Second, if you are not already doing it, consider editing a special issue (feel free to contact me with your proposals). Third, consider submitting your own work. Related to the last point, currently Games would especially welcome literature surveys in your respective fields; although of course they would be submitted to the same rigorous (but quick!) refereeing process as any other paper, feel free to propose a topic so that the scope can be discussed in advance.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support. Special thanks go to those who have already acted as referees and to the Guest Editors. I look forward to Issue 2!
Carlos Alós‐Ferrer
Editor‐in‐Chief, Games
‐‐
Frauke Muenzel, Managing Editor
Games Editorial Office
Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI)
Kandererstrasse 25, CH‐4057 Basel, Switzerland
Tel. +41 61 683 77 34
Fax +41 61 302 89 18
E‐mail: games@mdpi.org
http://www.mdpi.com/journal/games/
Dear All,
The first issue of Games, dated March 2010, has been published and is available under http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4336/1/1/
This first issue shows that, contrary to generally accepted practices, quick but rigorous refereeing and quick publication are feasible also in game theory. Counting both accepted and rejected papers, the average time from submission to first editorial response is currently 34 days, i.e. under 5 weeks. Concentrating on ultimately accepted papers, the overall average time from submission to publication online is currently 61 days. For me,
more instructive that these numbers have been the anecdotes. For example, I was astonished to see that it is perfectly possible to get highly detailed referee reports on a 60‐page, mathematically dense paper within a few weeks, and from established referees. Another rewarding experience concerns the reaction of authors, as for example when I asked an author of an experimental paper to conduct a full‐scale replication, expecting the revision to take months, and received the revision including the replication in a few weeks. Reasonable speed appears to be contagious.
It seems that the editorial delays we have grown used to are just an established but highly inefficient convention‐‐‐nothing more. Still, transitions from an inefficient equilibrium to a more efficient one can be notoriously difficult to implement. The first (short) issue has been completed, and the first paper in issue 2 is
already out, but we are still a long way from establishing the journal and the associated quick refereeing process. For this, I would like to ask for your help.
What can you do for the journal? First, talk about it and encourage good researchers to submit, quoting the speed of the editorial process. Second, if you are not already doing it, consider editing a special issue (feel free to contact me with your proposals). Third, consider submitting your own work. Related to the last point, currently Games would especially welcome literature surveys in your respective fields; although of course they would be submitted to the same rigorous (but quick!) refereeing process as any other paper, feel free to propose a topic so that the scope can be discussed in advance.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support. Special thanks go to those who have already acted as referees and to the Guest Editors. I look forward to Issue 2!
Carlos Alós‐Ferrer
Editor‐in‐Chief, Games
‐‐
Frauke Muenzel, Managing Editor
Games Editorial Office
Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI)
Kandererstrasse 25, CH‐4057 Basel, Switzerland
Tel. +41 61 683 77 34
Fax +41 61 302 89 18
E‐mail: games@mdpi.org
http://www.mdpi.com/journal/games/
The Market and Marketization
I'm following at a distance a series of workshops in Helsinki on the philosophy and sociology of economics: The Market and Marketization
"Is there something wrong with the market for human kidneys, child labour, chemical weapons, or greenhouse gas emissions? Is it possible to have markets for electoral votes, scientific ideas, love, moral praise, or salvation? Do we have markets in our heads? How do models of the Market relate to real world markets? How do the diverse models and theories of the Market in various scientific disciplines relate to one another? In what sense is the Market mechanism a mechanism? Does the same mechanism function outside of the ordinary economy? Does marketization always lead to more efficiency? Does it increase human happiness and wellbeing? What are its preconditions and consequences regarding our moral character? Does the marketization of society have any limits at all? "
Participants (and hangers on) were each asked to introduce ourselves to an interdisciplinary audience. My contribution:
"Two papers of mine that might be helpful for an interdisciplinary readership are
Roth, Alvin E. "What have we learned from market design?" Hahn Lecture, Economic Journal, 118 (March), 2008, 285-310.
Roth, Alvin E. "Repugnance as a Constraint on Markets", Journal of Economic Perspectives, 21:3, Summer, 2007, pp. 37-58."
"Is there something wrong with the market for human kidneys, child labour, chemical weapons, or greenhouse gas emissions? Is it possible to have markets for electoral votes, scientific ideas, love, moral praise, or salvation? Do we have markets in our heads? How do models of the Market relate to real world markets? How do the diverse models and theories of the Market in various scientific disciplines relate to one another? In what sense is the Market mechanism a mechanism? Does the same mechanism function outside of the ordinary economy? Does marketization always lead to more efficiency? Does it increase human happiness and wellbeing? What are its preconditions and consequences regarding our moral character? Does the marketization of society have any limits at all? "
Participants (and hangers on) were each asked to introduce ourselves to an interdisciplinary audience. My contribution:
"Two papers of mine that might be helpful for an interdisciplinary readership are
Roth, Alvin E. "What have we learned from market design?" Hahn Lecture, Economic Journal, 118 (March), 2008, 285-310.
Roth, Alvin E. "Repugnance as a Constraint on Markets", Journal of Economic Perspectives, 21:3, Summer, 2007, pp. 37-58."
Monday, April 19, 2010
A living lung donor is running today in the Boston marathon
A stranger, a gift, and a marathon miracle: Ellyn Cohen needed a lung to live, then a woman she’d never met offered hers
"It was an unusual act of kindness. Last year, out of 1,661 lung transplants in the United States, only one came from a living donor. In 2008, the number of living lung donors was zero, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, the government agency that coordinates national waitlists for organ transplants. And in 2004, the year Greene made her donation, she was one of just 28 living lung donors out of 1,172 transplants. That year, 492 people died while waiting for a lung.
As uncommon as living lung donors are, it is even less common for the organ to come from a stranger. And the way Greene found out about Cohen’s plight — from a mass e-mail forwarded by a friend — makes the story all the more incredible, said Sean Fitzpatrick, spokesman for the New England Organ Bank, the federally designated nonprofit organization that identifies deceased donors and recovers organs and tissues for transplants in the region."
...
"A few weeks after the surgery, Greene was playing tennis. The four lobes that remain in her two lungs are one less than a normal healthy person has. But her doctors have told her that her lungs work better than those of many healthy people. Two years ago, Greene started running. She decided to do the marathon to mark her half-century milestone. She got a charity number from her spouse, Angela Cenzalli, who works for the Special Olympics. But she will wear the shirt of the New England Organ Bank, to draw attention to the plight of the more than 1,800 people in the country awaiting lung transplants.
“If more people registered as donors we wouldn’t have to take parts out of living bodies,’’ Greene said. “I’m not asking people to donate their organs when they are alive.’’
She is not expecting to finish the race in less than five hours.
“I like to think that I’ll be fairly high up among the four-lobe people,’’ she smiled."
"It was an unusual act of kindness. Last year, out of 1,661 lung transplants in the United States, only one came from a living donor. In 2008, the number of living lung donors was zero, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, the government agency that coordinates national waitlists for organ transplants. And in 2004, the year Greene made her donation, she was one of just 28 living lung donors out of 1,172 transplants. That year, 492 people died while waiting for a lung.
As uncommon as living lung donors are, it is even less common for the organ to come from a stranger. And the way Greene found out about Cohen’s plight — from a mass e-mail forwarded by a friend — makes the story all the more incredible, said Sean Fitzpatrick, spokesman for the New England Organ Bank, the federally designated nonprofit organization that identifies deceased donors and recovers organs and tissues for transplants in the region."
...
"A few weeks after the surgery, Greene was playing tennis. The four lobes that remain in her two lungs are one less than a normal healthy person has. But her doctors have told her that her lungs work better than those of many healthy people. Two years ago, Greene started running. She decided to do the marathon to mark her half-century milestone. She got a charity number from her spouse, Angela Cenzalli, who works for the Special Olympics. But she will wear the shirt of the New England Organ Bank, to draw attention to the plight of the more than 1,800 people in the country awaiting lung transplants.
“If more people registered as donors we wouldn’t have to take parts out of living bodies,’’ Greene said. “I’m not asking people to donate their organs when they are alive.’’
She is not expecting to finish the race in less than five hours.
“I like to think that I’ll be fairly high up among the four-lobe people,’’ she smiled."
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Civet coffee
Here's a story from the NY Times that, if published on April 1, would have won a prize.
From Dung to Coffee Brew With No Aftertaste
"Costing hundreds of dollars a pound, these beans are found in the droppings of the civet, a nocturnal, furry, long-tailed catlike animal that prowls Southeast Asia’s coffee-growing lands for the tastiest, ripest coffee cherries. The civet eventually excretes the hard, indigestible innards of the fruit — essentially, incipient coffee beans — though only after they have been fermented in the animal’s stomach acids and enzymes to produce a brew described as smooth, chocolaty and devoid of any bitter aftertaste.
As connoisseurs in the United States, Europe and East Asia have discovered civet coffee in recent years, growing demand is fueling a gold rush in the Philippines and Indonesia, the countries with the largest civet populations. Harvesters are scouring forest floors in the Philippines, where civet coffee has emerged as a new business. In Indonesia, where the coffee has a long history, enterprising individuals are capturing civets and setting up minifarms, often in their backyards.
Neither the Indonesian government nor the Association of Indonesia Coffee Exporters breaks down civet coffee’s tiny share of Indonesia’s overall coffee production. The Association of Indonesian Coffee Luwak Farmers, created in 2009 to handle the rising demand for civet coffee, or kopi luwak, as it is called in Indonesian, said most civet producers were small-time businessmen who exported directly overseas.
Given the money at stake, fake and low-grade civet coffee beans are also flooding the market. "
...
"Competition is touching off fierce debates. What is real civet coffee, anyway? Does the civet’s choice of beans make the coffee? Or is it the beans’ journey through the animal’s digestive tract? Can the aroma, fragrance and taste of beans from the droppings of a caged civet ever be as tasty as those from its wild cousin? "
Update. Bettina Klaus writes from Lisbon (where she's stranded by the Icelandic ash cloud), "I found a link on further "Disgusting Delicacies" http://www.walletpop.com/specials/bw/disgusting-delicacies/. Goat poop oil also sounds nice. And the coffee can be mail ordered: http://www.animalcoffee.com/ "
From Dung to Coffee Brew With No Aftertaste
"Costing hundreds of dollars a pound, these beans are found in the droppings of the civet, a nocturnal, furry, long-tailed catlike animal that prowls Southeast Asia’s coffee-growing lands for the tastiest, ripest coffee cherries. The civet eventually excretes the hard, indigestible innards of the fruit — essentially, incipient coffee beans — though only after they have been fermented in the animal’s stomach acids and enzymes to produce a brew described as smooth, chocolaty and devoid of any bitter aftertaste.
As connoisseurs in the United States, Europe and East Asia have discovered civet coffee in recent years, growing demand is fueling a gold rush in the Philippines and Indonesia, the countries with the largest civet populations. Harvesters are scouring forest floors in the Philippines, where civet coffee has emerged as a new business. In Indonesia, where the coffee has a long history, enterprising individuals are capturing civets and setting up minifarms, often in their backyards.
Neither the Indonesian government nor the Association of Indonesia Coffee Exporters breaks down civet coffee’s tiny share of Indonesia’s overall coffee production. The Association of Indonesian Coffee Luwak Farmers, created in 2009 to handle the rising demand for civet coffee, or kopi luwak, as it is called in Indonesian, said most civet producers were small-time businessmen who exported directly overseas.
Given the money at stake, fake and low-grade civet coffee beans are also flooding the market. "
...
"Competition is touching off fierce debates. What is real civet coffee, anyway? Does the civet’s choice of beans make the coffee? Or is it the beans’ journey through the animal’s digestive tract? Can the aroma, fragrance and taste of beans from the droppings of a caged civet ever be as tasty as those from its wild cousin? "
Update. Bettina Klaus writes from Lisbon (where she's stranded by the Icelandic ash cloud), "I found a link on further "Disgusting Delicacies" http://www.walletpop.com/specials/bw/disgusting-delicacies/. Goat poop oil also sounds nice. And the coffee can be mail ordered: http://www.animalcoffee.com/ "
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