Experimental Economics at the Stanford SITE workshop: Aug 23-25 2013

I will be in India, but it looks like I'll be missing a great conference.

Stanford Institute for Theoretical Economics Summer 2013 Workshop
	Segment 7:Experimental Economics August 23, 24 and 25, 2013. Organized by Lise Vesterlund, University of Pittsburgh and Lucas Coffman, The Ohio State University; John Beshears, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, and Charles Sprenger, Alvin Roth and Muriel Niederle, all Stanford University.

Friday, August 23

8:15 - 8:45 Breakfast

8:45 - 9:00 Welcome

9:00 - 10:00 Decisions Under Uncertainty and Ambiguity
Stochastic Choice and Hedging presented by Pietro Ortoleva, Columbia University
No Two Experiments are Identical presented by Yoram Halevy, University of British Columbia

10:00 - 10:30 Coffee

10:30 - 12:00 Foundations of Game Theory and Strategy
Epistemic Foundations for the Failure of Nash Equilibrium presented by P.J. Healy, The Ohio State University
A Generalized Winner's Curse: An Experimental Investigation of Complexity and Adverse Selectionpresented by Gary Charness, University of California, Santa Barbara
Endogenous Depth of Reasoning presented by Antonio Penta, University of Wisconsin, Madison and co-authored with Larbi Alaoui, Universitat Pompeu Fabra and Barcelona GSE

12:00 - 2:00 Lunchtime discussion

2:00 - 3:00 Communication and Influence (Lab)
Interpersonal Influence presented by Lucas Coffman, The Ohio State University and co-authored withPaul Niehaus, University of California, San Diego
Less Is More: Communication Costs and Team Performance presented by Zachary Grossman,University of California, Santa Barbara

3:00 - 3:30 Coffee

3:30 - 4:30 Shorter Session 1
Institutions Build Intuitions: Evolving Cultures of Cooperation and Defection in the Laboratorypresented by Alexander Peysakhovich, Harvard University
Intuitive Generosity and the Inability to Draw Inference from Decision Time presented by María P. Recalde, University of Pittsburgh
Backward Induction in the Finitely Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma: Experimental Evidence presented by Sevgi Yuksel, New York University
Rationality and Consistent Beliefs: Theory and Experimental Evidence presented by Terri Kneeland,University of British Columbia

4:30 - 6:00 Informal Exchange

6:00 Continued discussion and dissemination of technical knowledge during dinner

Saturday, August 24

8:30 - 9:00 Breakfast

9:00 - 10:00 Developments in Fairness
Social observation Increases Prosociality of Choices and Visual Attention presented by Stephanie W. Wang, University of Pittsburgh
The Value of Information and the Role of Fairness in Bargaining presented by Judd B. Kessler, The Wharton School

10:30 - 11:30 Communication and Influence (Field)
Can a Small Nudge Affect Job Choice? Experimental Evidence from Teach for America presented byClayton Featherstone, University of Pennsylvania
Fundraising Through Online Social Networks: a Field Experiment on Peer-to-Peer Solicitationpresented by Ragan Petrie, George Mason University

11:30 - 1:30 Lunchtime discussion

1:30 - 2:30 State Dependent Choice
Time and State Dependence in an Ss Decision Experiment presented by Ryan Oprea, University of British Columbia, and co-authored with Jacopo Magnani and Aspen Gorry, both University of California, Santa Cruz
Rational Inattention and State Dependent Stochastic Choice presented by Andrew Caplin, New York University

2:30 - 3:00 Coffee

3:00 - 4:00 Prosociality and Effort Provision
Why Do People Volunteer? An Experimental Analysis of Preferences for Time Donations presented byJonathan Meer, Texas A&M University
Revisiting Gift-Exchange: Theoretical Considerations and a Field Test presented by Rosario Macera Parra, Universidad Catolica de Chile, and co-authored with Constanca Esteves-Sorenson, Yale University School of Management

4:00 - 4:15 Short Break and Informal Exchange

4:15 - 5:15 Shorter Session 2
Symmetry in Cold-to-Hot and Hot-to-Cold Valuation Gaps presented by Geoffrey Fisher, California Institute of Technology and co-authored with Antonio Rangel, also California Institute of Technology
The Realization Effect: Risk-Taking After Realized Versus Paper Losses presented by Alex Imas,Carnegie Mellon University
Is Response Time Predictive of Choice? An Experimental Study of Threshold Strategies presented byIsabel Trevino, New York University and co-authored with Andrew Schotter, also New York University
Correlation Neglect in Belief Formation presented by Florian Zimmermann, University of Bonn and co-authored with Benjamin Enke, also University of Bonn

6:00 Continued discussion and dissemination of technical knowledge during dinner

Sunday, August 25

9:00- 9:30 Breakfast

9:30 - 10:30 Sustained Cooperation
Dissolution of Partnerships in Infinitely Repeated Games presented by Alistair J. Wilson, University of Pittsburgh
Long-Term Commitment and Cooperation presented by Frédéric Schneider, Zurich

10:30 - 11:00 Coffee

11:00 am - 12:00 Inequality and Group Behavior
Inequality and Relative Ability Beliefs presented by Jeffrey Butler, EINAUDI
Equilibrium Tax Rates and Income Redistribution: A Laboratory Study presented by Marina Agranov,California Institute of Technology, and co-authored with Thomas R. Palfrey, also California Institute of Technology

12:00 Lunchtime discussion

Law firm hiring bonuses for supreme court clerks

Above the Law has the story:

It’s Official: Supreme Court Clerkship Bonuses Hit A New High

By DAVID LAT

There hasn’t been much major good news on the associate compensation front over the past few years — since, say, January 2007. But recent weeks have brought pockets of minor good news for limited constituencies. Green shoots, anyone?

In Miami, Greenberg Traurig raised starting salariesby 16 percent, from $125,000 to $145,000. In New York, Sullivan & Cromwell and Skadden Arps started offering $300,000 signing bonuses to Supreme Court clerks.

And now $300K bonuses for SCOTUS clerks have spread, to other law firms in other cities. Consider this the new going rate for top-shelf talent….

Multiple clerks from the October Term 2012 class have received offers of $300,000 signing bonuses, from the following firms:

• Gibson Dunn
• Jones Day
• Munger Tolles
• Paul Weiss
• Skadden Arps
• Sullivan & Cromwell

And The Economist follows up: The curiously strong market for Supreme Court clerks

AMERICA’S chief justice earns $224,618 a year. The other eight Supreme Court judges pocket $214,969. Nice work if you can get it, but paltry compared with the sums law firms are offering to the judges’ clerks—lawyers in their mid-to-late twenties who take a year-long post—to secure their services.

Earlier this month two big firms, Skadden Arps and Sullivan & Cromwell, set a new record in the bidding war by offering signing bonuses of $300,000. Combined with the base salary for third-year “associates” (the rank at which they typically enter a firm) and a modest end-of-year bonus, clerks can now take home $500,000 in their first year of private employment.
...
Perhaps the main reason for the ongoing bidding war is the inflexibility of pay scales at the law firms. The industry has barely budged from an age-old practice in which those on the lower rungs of lawyerdom are paid strictly according to their years of experience. This rule does not apply to court clerks’ signing bonuses, so these are a means of buying in talent without breaking a professional taboo. It would of course be more sensible to scrap such “lockstep” pay scales entirely. Jones Day, a prominent Washington firm, has done so. But lawyers are creatures of habit, and few other firms have followed.

Clearing: the scramble for British university admissions begins today

Admissions offers in Britain are (often) contingent on exam results, and today the A-level exam results are publiished, and the process known as Clearing begins. The Telegraph has the story (and apps to guide students through the process).
Clearing 2013: How to play the system
If you don’t get the A-level grades you want on Thursday, don’t panic. Let Andrew Marszal and the Telegraph guide you through clearing and beyond

While this particular “due date” is certain – A-level results will be published tomorrow come rain or shine – the outcome is anything but.

Based on numbers from previous years, we know that by tomorrow morning around 350,000 students will be celebrating, having secured the grades they needed to meet their university offers.

We can even speculate that one or two of them will leap joyfully into the air, shamelessly flourishing their straight A* grades for local press photographers.

But for a significant proportion of would-be undergraduates, the end of the long wait only marks the beginning of university clearing.

Once the dust had settled last year, some 167,000 teenagers found themselves eligible for clearing – the process which matches students who don’t have the university offers they want with courses that still have vacancies.

With overall application numbers slightly up for this year’s courses, it’s likely that figure could be exceeded this week.

And even those who have gained or exceeded the required grades will want to keep an eye on clearing – there is still the option of switching to a more competitive course through the parallel “adjustment” process, which carries the advantage of not having to give up your existing offer while you shop around for a better course.

So that’s why, with hundreds of thousands of teenagers making potentially life-altering decisions in the space of just a few days or even hours after receiving their results, the Telegraph has put together a range of exclusive tools to help you negotiate your application. As the exclusive media partner of Ucas, all course vacancy listings will be available only with this newspaper in England and Wales, starting from the morning of A-level results day. There will be further listings published free with your newspaper on August 16, 17 and 29 and September 5.

But bear in mind that clearing places will come and go across the clearing period until September 30, as people turn down offers and universities fill places.
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Here's a helpful graphic of whhere the vacant places are: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/clearing/10242726/Clearing-2013-graphic-which-universities-have-places.html

College admissions as the cohort of high school grads starts to shrink

The NY Times had a story about admissions practices in a time of declining enrollments: College Enrollment Falls as Economy Recovers, that has been followed up by a story in Inside Higher Ed, The Hard (and Late) Sell, whose URL says more that its headline does: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/07/29/some-colleges-recruit-students-who-have-already-accepted-offers-elsewhere

"Colleges should "not knowingly recruit students who are enrolled, registered, have initiated deferred admission, or have declared their intent, or submitted contractual deposits to other institutions," says the Statement of Principles of Good Practice of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. (The statement does not have legal power, but is a respected ethics code for the admissions profession.)

"So more than a few admissions officers and high school counselors did a double-take when they read in The New York Times Friday that Loyola University in New Orleans this summer "made a flurry of calls to students who had been accepted but had decided to go elsewhere, and had even paid deposits to other colleges." Loyola is among a number of colleges that this year were seriously below their targets for a freshman class for the fall, and the Times cited that strategy (which would seem to directly violate the NACAC statement) as one being tried. And so counselors did what they generally do when they learn of violations of their code of conduct: they asked NACAC to investigate.

"Loyola says that its officials were misquoted by the Times (more on that later) and that it strictly abides by the NACAC guidelines. But it also turns out that some other colleges have been going after students who have made deposits and commitments elsewhere, in violation of the NACAC guidelines."

More on suicide bombing as a repugnant transaction

I recently blogged about suicide bombing as a repugnant transaction, in the sense that while most of the world condemns it, there are communities or parts of communities that encourage and celebrate it. Now Tyler Cowen blogs about the movie "The Attack" (by a Lebanese director, but banned throughout the Arab world as portraying Israeli bombing victims too sympathetically) and points to this review in the Washington Post: ‘The Attack’: Lebanese director’s film about suicide bombing gets Israeli premiere

"Banned by Lebanon, ignored by Arab countries and praised by U.S. critics, the suicide-bomber drama “The Attack” finally got a splashy sold-out Middle East premiere — in Jerusalem.

"Many people settling into their seats at the recent Jerusalem Film Festival screening in the plush Cinematheque, which overlooks the Old City, had lived through the years when Palestinian suicide bombings roiled Israeli society, killing hundreds of people in crowded cafes, buses and markets.

"Now, as the theater grew dark, Israelis were asked to examine their country’s security equation through the eyes of Amin Jafaari, an award-winning Israeli surgeon of Palestinian background who is shocked to discover that his beautiful wife is a suicide bomber, responsible for a blast at a Tel Aviv cafe that claims 17 victims, including 11 children.

"At first, Jafaari is disbelieving and outraged. Eventually he heads to the Palestinian West Bank city of Nablus to find out how she could have done this.

"There, he finds his wife celebrated as a martyr in posters and handbills, and by hostile extremists who order him out of a mosque. Even his relatives are proud of her. His wife’s young co-conspirator struggles to explain how Palestinian civilian casualties in an Israeli army attack could motivate him to orchestrate such a heinous act.

More progress with long kidney exchange chains

Here's an article with some interesting background information about a recent long chain,and about the progress being made in kidney exchange, by  Leila Haghighat in the Philadelphia Inquirer: Kidney chains link patients and donors.

I blogged earlier about this chain, in June, here.

The Facebook effect on deceased organ donor registration

The American Journal of Transplantation has some data on the effect of Facebook's promotion of deceased donor registration. Here's a (gated) link to the article:

Social Media and Organ Donor Registration: The Facebook Effect, by

A. M. Cameron, A. B. Massie, C. E. Alexander, B. Stewart, R. A. Montgomery, N. R. Benavides, G. D. Fleming, D. L. Segev

Abstract: Despite countless media campaigns, organ donation rates in the United States have remained static while need has risen dramatically. New efforts to increase organ donation through public education are necessary to address the waiting list of over 100,000 patients. On May 1, 2012, the online social network, Facebook, altered its platform to allow members to specify “Organ Donor” as part of their profile. Upon such choice, members were offered a link to their state registry to complete an official designation, and their “friends” in the network were made aware of the new status as a donor. Educational links regarding donation were offered to those considering the new organ donor status. On the first day of the Facebook organ donor initiative, there were 13,054 new online registrations, representing a 21.1-fold increase over the baseline average of 616 registrations. This first-day effect ranged from 6.9× (Michigan) to 108.9× (Georgia). Registration rates remained elevated in the following 12 days. During the same time period, no increase was seen in registrations from the DMV. Novel applications of social media may prove effective in increasing organ donation rates and likewise might be utilized in other refractory public health problems in which communication and education are essential.

Boston College and TUBITAK celebrate Utku Unver

From the B.C. Chronicle yesterday, announcing that Utku Ünver has won the Special Award in Science of the Turkish Scientific and Technological Research Council (TUBITAK) (2013) (Tubitak's highest award for a Turkish scholar working abroad)

"Ünver, who joined Boston College in 2008, has been granted a Special Award in Science by the Turkish Scientific and Technological Research Council, which recognizes Turkish scientists who have significantly contributed to science by their work abroad. Ünver was the sole recipient of the award in the Social Sciences category, cited for his work on economic design, matching models and kidney exchange schemes, many of which have involved collaboration with colleague Professor Tayfun Sönmez and recent Nobel Prize recipient Alvin Roth."
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Here's an earlier announcement: TÜBİTAK ödülleri açıklandı! (TUBITAK Awards Winners Announced)

An unusual law clerk hire

Not every clerk is hired without any experience other than law school. This year, one clerk, Shon Hopwood, will be showing up at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals after (not right after) a lengthy prison term for bank robbery (after which he went to law school at the University of Washington ).

Here's a blog post on it (note the date, for those of you who have been following the unravelling of the law clerk market this year. I presume that Mr Hopwood will return this Fall to his third year of law school so that he's been hired before the recently-abandoned "official" Fall dates). The URL is too nice to hide the link behind text: http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2013/08/shon-hopwoods-unique-career-in-the-law-has-taken-a-dramatic-new-turn-the-onetime-jailhouse-lawyer-who-served-time-in-federal.html

AUGUST 07, 2013

Unusual Law Clerk Hire for D.C. Circuit Judge Janice Rogers Brown

Shon Hopwood's unique career in the law has taken a dramatic new turn. The onetime jailhouse lawyer who served time in federal prison for robbing banks has been hired as a 2014 law clerk for Judge Janice Rogers Brown of the prestigious U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

"I'm amazed at the opportunities and second chances I have been given," said Hopwood Wednesday after returning home to Seattle from his interview with Brown on Monday. Hopwood said the judge offered him the job soon after the interview. "I quickly said yes."

****************

Here's an August 26 story from the NY Times: Taking a Second Chance, and Running With It

Equalizing transplant waiting times across regions: OrganJet helps its first patient

Sridhar Tayur at CMU, the founder of OrganJet emails "Thanks for your help and support...our first patient gets her kidney away from where she lives" and points me to this press release--OrganJet customer receives kidney transplant years faster due to smart multiple listing.

"Originally listed in the DC area about 18 months ago, where the median wait time is nearly 5 years -- wait times in nearby Maryland are not that much better -- the 41-year old wife and mother contacted OrganJet for advice and arranged her on-demand jet transportation options (in addition to available commercial choices) just a few months ago. 
"There is significant disparity in wait times across different geographic areas, ranging from over 5 years in areas like NJ, MA, Washington D.C. and CA, while it is half that (or less) in regions like Pittsburgh, PA, Portland, OR and Madison, Wisconsin," said Sridhar Tayur, Founder and CEO of OrganJet and a professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business. Every year, over 5000 patients die waiting for a kidney in some parts of the US while organs in other regions may go unused.  While the actual numbers of wasted organs is a subject of debate, it is generally recognized to be in the range of 500-2500 annually. "Our goal is to provide affordable options for patients on transplant lists in high wait time areas so that they can increase their access to organs. This improved matching also helps reduce organ waste," said Tayur."
***********

See my earlier post on OrganJet.

Undocumented immigrants in need of transplants

Some people are in really difficult circumstances:
Hunger strikers seek transplants for undocumented immigrants
"Demanding access to organ transplant procedures for undocumented immigrants, a group of hunger strikers set up camp outside Northwestern Memorial Hospital on Sunday."

Here's the story as of yesterday:
Hunger Strike Continues For Undocumented Immigrants Needing Organ Transplants

 My understanding is that Northwestern and other transplant centers don't in fact take immigration status into account, but that undocumented immigrants may evaluate poorly on the ability to sustain the daily immunosuppressive drug treatments that follow transplantation. (See this earlier post on the consequences of medicare's 3 year payment limit on immunosuppresive drugs.)

Suicide bombing as a repugnant transaction

Often when I write about repugnant transactions I'm exploring why some people don't like something that other people want to do. But it can work the other way too: we should work to understand what some people like about activities that most people disapprove of.  This story yesterday in the Beirut Daily Star, about suicide bombing, caught my eye:

Lebanese suicide bomber’s family celebrates death of kin in Syria

"TRIPOLI, Lebanon: The family of a Lebanese suicide bomber who died in Syria received congratulations and distributed sweets for the killing of two of their members fighting against the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

“The Syrian regime is an enemy,” the grandfather of Motasem and his brother Hasan Khaldoun al-Hasan told The Daily Star. “There are fatwas to kill members or supporters of this regime, which is an infidel regime.”

"The grand father, Mohammad Hajj Dib – better known as Abu Abdel-Nasser – dubbed his grandsons “martyrs.”

"Abu Moaz, the nom de guerre of Motasem al-Hasan, blew himself up in the attack on the Syrian army checkpoint near Qalaat al-Hosn or Crac des Chevaliers in Homs last week. Abu Othman, the nom de guerre of Motasem’s brother Hasan Khaldoun, was killed in a later assault on the post by rebels.
...
At a condolences ceremony at the family residence in Tripoli’s neighborhood of Mankoubeen over the weekend, the grandfather, was smiling as he greeted visitors and distributed sweets after iftar. Visitors congratulated the family – a traditional way of offering condolences to relatives of martyrs.

The news of the brothers’ deaths was announced over the weekend by Sheikh Mohammad Ibrahim a member of Lebanon’s Salafist Hizb Ut-Tahrir.

“We would like to bring the Muslims in Lebanon and Tripoli the good news of the martyrdom of two college boys Abu Moaz and ... Abu Othman who [were part of an attack] on the Abu Zeid checkpoint near Crac des Chevaliers in Homs during a suicide mission,” Ibrahim said in a statement."

It's National Minority Organ Donor Awareness Week

Here's the relevant U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website: National Minority Donor Awareness Week, August 1-7

"Observed annually, National Minority Donor Awareness Week was created to increase awareness of the need for more organ, eye, and tissue donors, especially among minorities. Now in its 17th year, this special observance honors minorities who have been donors, and encourages others to register as donors and take better care of their health in order to reduce the number needing a transplant."

A related story: Minority Organ Donors in Dire Need in Illinois
""The essence of organ and tissue donations in the African-American and Hispanic communities is critical," said Jackie Lynch, Director of Community Affairs for Gift of Hope Organ and Tissue Donor Network.
Gift of Hope is an agency that helps people in need of organ and tissue transplants. More than half of the state's waiting list are minorities, but they are the fewest registered donors, according to Lynch. He says 18 percent of the state’s population is African-American, but the demographic makes up 54 percent of people in need of organ donor transplants.
"There are so few African-American donors, yet so many waiting. They wait longer and in many cases they die waiting."

Here's a recent paper on consent rates: Crit Care Med. 2013 Feb;41(2):496-505.
Deceased organ donation consent rates among racial and ethnic minorities and older potential donors.
Goldberg DS, Halpern SD, Reese PP.
DESIGN, SETTING, AND SUBJECTS:
We used data provided by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network to analyze the 35,823 organ procurement organization-reported eligible deaths (potential brain-dead donors ≤ 70 yr of age) from January 1, 2008, to October 31, 2011.
"MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS:
Excluding cases where donation authorization was based on prior patient documentation (e.g., donor registry), consent was obtained on 21,601 (68.9%), not obtained on 8,727 (27.8%), and not requested on 1,080 (3.4%) eligible deaths. There were substantial differences in consent rates among racial/ethnic groups (77.0% in whites, 67.5% in Hispanics, 54.9% in blacks, and 48.1% in Asians) and organ procurement organizations (median [interquartile range]: 72.4% [67.5-87.3]). In generalized estimating equation models, with whites and patients ages 18-39 yr as the respective reference groups, consent for donation was less likely to be obtained among Hispanics (odds ratio 0.54; 95% confidence interval 0.44-0.65), blacks (odds ratio 0.35; 95% confidence interval 0.31-0.39), Asians (odds ratio 0.31; 95% confidence interval 0.25-0.37), and eligible donors ages 55-64 (odds ratio 0.72; 95% confidence interval 0.67-0.77), and ≥ 65 yr (odds ratio 0.58; 95% confidence interval 0.52-0.64).
CONCLUSIONS:
In presenting the first published analyses of consent rates among all eligible deaths, this study confirms smaller and regional studies that showed significant differences in consent rates between whites and racial/ethnic minorities (blacks, Hispanics, and Asians). The study also identifies considerable variation in consent rates between age groups and between organ procurement organizations. Critical care physicians are usually the front-line providers for potential brain-dead donors and their next-of-kin, and these data highlight the need for further research to identify the causes of variation in consent rates and mechanisms to increase rates where appropriate."

U.S. medical school enrollment is increasing faster than residency positions

...and if you draw the lines, you can see when we might crossover from importing new doctors to exporting them.  Here's an article in the NEJM on recent trends:

The Residency Mismatch, by John K. Iglehart

"After two decades (1980 to 2000) when the number of U.S. medical school graduates remained steady (about 16,000 annually), a burst of activity has led to the expansion of existing medical schools, the development of new ones, and rapid growth of colleges of osteopathy. In 2002, there were 125 U.S. medical schools; today, there are 141, and about one third of the recent growth in enrollment derives from new schools.
...
"... federal funding is a key factor limiting the number of GME positions, which, in contrast to medical school seats, has increased remarkably slowly — at an annual rate of 0.9% from 2001 through 2010.2 The major stumbling block over the past 15 years has been a payment cap that Congress imposed on Medicare's funding of advanced training in the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. Medicare is the primary supporter of GME programs..."

HT: Ran Shorrer

19th World Transplant Games begin in Durban

People with transplants can resume active lives...here's the story.

"The opening of the World Transplant Games was marked with a ceremony featuring a mass choir performance of the official event song, “Our Hearts Are Beating”.
...
"The World Transplant Games are held every other year with cities around the world competing to hold the sporting event. The main qualification for athletes to compete is that they need have an organ transplant. "

HT: Ran Shorrer

Who volunteers for the volunteer army?

When I was young, the Viet Nam was was underway, and the way the American army got many soldiers was by conscription. But conscription ended in 1973, the Army has been an all volunteer force since then.

One reason it's interesting to look at who American soldiers are is because of the light it might shed on other debates, such as the one about whether living kidney donors should be compensated, and what would be the likely change in the pattern of donations should the law be changed to allow that.  One concern that arises is that, if kidneys could be bought and sold, the sellers would be the poorest of the poor, in desperation.

That isn't who end up in the American Army, it turns out. Here's a 2008 report from the Heritage Foundation that casts some light on the subject. It appears that being an American soldier is a good enough job that you have to have substantial human capital to be able to qualify.

Who Serves in the U.S. Military? The Demographics of Enlisted Troops and Officers
By Shanea Watkins, Ph.D. and James Sherk

"Based on an understanding of the limitations of any objective definition of quality, this report compares military volunteers to the civilian population on four demographic characteristics: household income, education level, racial and ethnic background, and regional origin. This report finds that:

1. U.S. military service disproportionately attracts enlisted personnel and officers who do not come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Previous Heritage Foundation research demonstrated that the quality of enlisted troops has increased since the start of the Iraq war. This report demonstrates that the same is true of the officer corps.
2. Members of the all-volunteer military are significantly more likely to come from high-income neighborhoods than from low-income neighborhoods. Only 11 percent of enlisted recruits in 2007 came from the poorest one-fifth (quintile) of neighborhoods, while 25 percent came from the wealthiest quintile. These trends are even more pronounced in the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program, in which 40 percent of enrollees come from the wealthiest neighborhoods-a number that has increased substantially over the past four years.
3. American soldiers are more educated than their peers. A little more than 1 percent of enlisted personnel lack a high school degree, compared to 21 percent of men 18-24 years old, and 95 percent of officer accessions have at least a bachelor's degree.
4. Contrary to conventional wisdom, minorities are not overrepresented in military service. Enlisted troops are somewhat more likely to be white or black than their non-military peers. Whites are proportionately represented in the officer corps, and blacks are overrepresented, but their rate of overrepresentation has declined each year from 2004 to 2007. New recruits are also disproportionately likely to come from the South, which is in line with the history of Southern military tradition.

The facts do not support the belief that many American soldiers volunteer because society offers them few other opportunities."

HT: Volokh conspirators

Purple market design at Northwestern: Jeff Ely and Sandeep Baliga auction football tickets

Blogging would be easy if I got more emails like this one from eminent game theorists. Its subject line was "our foray into market design":

dear al,

sandeep baliga and i persuaded northwestern athletics to let us auction off their football tickets.  the auction starts tomorrow. you can see it here:

http://www.nupurplepricing.com/

we put together a little video to explain how the auction works. (in simple terms its a uniform-price dutch auction).

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjTsjTwuW14

we would love it if you could mention it on your blog.

jeff

(Any complaints from disgruntled Wildcats should be directed to  Jeffrey Ely and/or Sandeep Baliga. Or maybe you could comment on their blog Cheap Talk, one of the economics blogs that I follow.)

Non-directed kidney donors are increasing (and are increasingly important)

Here's a story on the increasing number of non-directed kidney donors: Amid organ shortage, altruistic kidney donations increase but bring forth ethical debate

This line caught my eye:
 "It's difficult to pinpoint a single reason for the uptick, but more than 50 percent of altruistic donations ever performed -- 1,374 as of April -- came after 2009, when numbers of traditional living donors started falling."

I am only speculating, but I'm guessing that the relatively small drop in live kidney donation has to do with the recession: when times are hard, it's harder to arrange time for a kidney surgery, since we don't allow donors to be compensated, and aren't even as good as we should be at covering their costs.
As for the growth of non-directed donations since 2009, that's when the first non-simultaneous non-directed donor chain was reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, and that and other long chains since then may have garnered enough publicity (such as this and this) to spread the word to potential donors.

In any event, chains started by non-directed donors are an increasingly important part of kidney exchange today, for reasons explored here.

Some memories of Cy Derman

Annals of Operations Research has published online a paper on the life and work of Cyrus Derman, by Katehakis, Olkin and Ross.

1. OriginalPaper

   On the life and work of Cyrus Derman

   Michael N. Katehakis, Ingram Olkin, Sheldon M. Ross…
   

   Download PDF (1150KB) View Article

I knew Derman as an undergrad at Columbia. So, in the manner of undergrads, I didn't know him at all well. I nevertheless remember him fondly.

1. Letter

   Some memories of Cy Derman

   Alvin E. Roth
   

   Download PDF (117KB) View Article

Here's the text of my letter:

I came to Columbia in 1968 as an undergraduate in the engineering school. I didn’t know what I wanted to major in, and declared an interest in nuclear engineering, so that I could take as many physics courses as I wanted. But the summer after my freshman year I took a summer job in Washington D.C. at an Army lab for which I had qualified by taking a civil service exam. They had an OR group, and I returned to school as an OR major.

In the manner of undergraduates, I didn’t have a clear idea of what my teachers did. But I recall admiring Cy Derman’s attitude: he seemed not to take himself too seriously. I recall he wore turtleneck shirts and talked about tennis, and summers at Stanford.

When it came time to think about graduation, Cy urged me to think about grad school in OR, and volunteered to write a letter for me. Some time later, in a reflective moment, he said something to me like “I wrote you a very good letter. I’m not exactly sure why; you didn’t do all that well in your courses. But I have a feeling that you might be good at research.” Cornell and Stanford were the programs he recommended, and when I was accepted at both, his preference was clear, and I followed his advice, which set me on a path I’m still following.

2013 National Donor Designation Report Card Released

Donate Life America releases their annual report on organ donor registration. Here's their summary news release, and a link to the full report:

Donate Life America unveiled its sixth annual National Donor Designation Report Card during the organization’s annual meeting, held in Indianapolis, Indiana, this year. The document reports 109 million people had enrolled in state donor registries by the end of 2012. The public can add to that number and help save the lives of the more than 120,000 men, women and children awaiting organ transplants by designating a donation decision at www.donatelife.net.

This year’s Report Card puts specific emphasis on the efforts of Donate Life America and its constituents to reach the 18-24 year old demographic, who say they have not registered because they “have not heard about it” or “simply have not gotten around to it.”  Though it is extremely important to educate all demographics, the 18-24 is least likely to register, followed closely by people 65 and older, who often erroneously believe they are too old to be organ, eye and tissue donors.

Nationwide, 45 percent of individuals age 18 and older have registered to be organ, eye and tissue donors. Montana and Alaska top the state list with 82 percent and 80 percent respectively, followed by Washington with 78 percent.

The document also reports that of all recovered donors in the United Sates in 2012, 40 percent of organ, 48 percent of eye and 45 percent of tissue donors, were authorized through the state donor registry.  These numbers have continued to rise since Donate Life America began collecting this data in 2007.

“Eighteen people die each day due to a lack of available organs for transplant and the number of people on the national organ transplant waiting list continues to rise, “ said David Fleming, President and CEO of Donate Life America.  “The only way to give greater hope to all of the individuals waiting is for all who have not year registered to take the time to do it today.”

View full report card

Here's a state by state summary from pages 6 and 7 of the report.