The market for photographs: "Man - 60 years and older"

Photographs for sale can be either of specific individuals or "stock photos" of generic images. Here's a picture of me that seems to be both, judging from the keywords the photographer or seller, Richard Kalvar at Magnum Photos, has assigned to it (such as "Man - 60 years and older"):

Keywords: Davos–International conference–American (nationality)–Davos
–Keedup QC–Man - 60 years and older–One Person–Portrait–Professor–ROTH Alvin

Lloyd S. Shapley 1923- 2016

I turned on my phone after landing from Frankfurt, and found an email from Lloyd's son Peter Shapley, saying that Lloyd passed away in his sleep at around 12:45 AM today, March 12.

The world is the less...



Update: see some obituaries here-- Lloyd Shapley: obituaries, and memories

Cass Sunstein for Chair of the President's Council of Psychological Advisors

The Council of Psychological Advisers

Cass R. Sunstein 

Harvard Law School
January 2016

Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 67, pp. 713-737, 2016 
Abstract:      

Findings in behavioral science, including psychology, have influenced policies and reforms in many nations. Choice architecture can affect outcomes even if material incentives are not involved. In some contexts, default rules, simplification, and social norms have had even larger effects than significant economic incentives. Psychological research is helping to inform initiatives in savings, finance, highway safety, consumer protection, energy, climate change, obesity, education, poverty, development, crime, corruption, health, and the environment. No nation has yet created a council of psychological advisers, but the role of behavioral research in policy domains is likely to grow in the coming years, especially in light of the mounting interest in promoting ease and simplification (“navigability”); in increasing effectiveness, economic growth, and competitiveness; and in providing low-cost, choice-preserving approaches.

German press coverage

One of the themes that has struck a chord with the German press during my visit is that refugee resettlement is a matching problem:

Handelsblatt „Die Flüchtlingskrise ist ein Matching-Problem“ ("The refugee crisis is a matching problem")

Die Welt "Staaten sollten Gebote für Flüchtlinge abgeben"
From google translate:

From because of cooler economist - Alvin Roth has indeed studied hard subjects with mathematics and computer science. But he loves not only the numbers, but also the people. It shows the same. He greeted with a winning smile, leaving a to an exciting conversation about refugees and donor kidneys, financial markets and future presidents.

The World: Some economists want to apply to the distribution of refugees in Europe your design markets. Is this a good idea?

Photo: JONATHAN NACKSTRAND / AFP / Getty ImagesStanford Professor Alvin Roth

Alvin Roth: Essentially, yes. The distribution of refugees is a so-called matching market - on the right pairing it depends, in this case of people and place. The people themselves have preferences where they want to live. At the same time they should be able to be easily integrated into the economy. For that we should allow an orderly exchange of information. According Dublin procedure an applicant must his application but ask in the country where he first arrived. This does not add up.

Lit.Cologne photo:

Who Gets What and Why in Frankfurt, at the German National Library

I'll be speaking about Who Gets What and Why in Frankfurt today at the German National Library:

Einladung zur Veranstaltung mit Alvin E. Roth am 11.03.2016

15.02.2016 News 

Wie Märkte funktionieren: Nobelpreisträger Alvin E. Roth im Gespräch mit Malte Lehming über sein Buch »Wer kriegt was und warum?«

(Markets Work: Nobel Laureate Alvin E. Roth in an interview with Malte Lehming about his book "Who gets what and why"?)

Was verbindet Organspende, Parkplatzsuche, den Kauf eines Hauses und die Suche nach einem Ausbildungsplatz? Vermeintlich nichts. Dann aber stellt man fest, dass wir es bei all diesen Dingen mit Märkten zu tun haben, die in vielfältiger Weise in unser Leben eingreifen. Es handelt sich um Märkte, die nicht unbedingt oder unmittelbar mit Geld zu beeinflussen sind.

Alvin E. Roth, der Miterfinder des »Market Designs« und Nobelpreisträger für Wirtschaft des Jahres 2012, widmet sich in seinem neuesten Buch den Märkten, die sich, statt über Preise, über den Abgleich von Interessen und das optimale Verbinden von Wünschen zur Zufriedenheit aller regeln lassen. Im Gespräch mit Malte Lehming geht er dabei unterschiedlichsten Fragestellungen des Alltags nach: Wie finden Eltern die richtige Schule für ihr Kind? Wie findet man den richtigen Arbeitgeber? Wie finden Nierenkranke den richtigen Organspender? Dabei geht es nicht allein um die Frage, nach welchen Regeln und Gesetzen diese Märkte funktionieren, sondern auch darum, wie wir lernen können, sie zu unseren Gunsten zu beeinflussen.

Zu dieser Veranstaltung in englischer Sprache laden wir Sie und Ihre Begleitung herzlich ein. Der Eintritt ist frei. Wir freuen uns auf Sie!

Einladung zur Veranstaltung (pdf)
Anmeldeformular (pdf)
Anmeldeformular (Text)

Veranstaltung in Kürze

Freitag, 11. März 2016, 19 Uhr
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Adickesallee 1, 60322 Frankfurt

How markets work: Nobel Prize winner Alvin E. Roth in conversation with Malte Lehming about his book "Who gets what – and why" // Book presentation and interview (in English) // German National Library in Frankfurt am Main // Friday, 11 March 2016, 19:00

In his new book Alvin E. Roth, contributor to the "market design" theory and 2012 Economics Nobel Prize winner, examines the types of markets which are regulated by the balancing of interests, by the optimised and mutually satisfying marrying of different wishes, and not by price. In an interview with Malte Lehming (Der Tagesspiegel) he explores everyday issues such as: How can parents find the right school for their child? What is the best way of finding the right employer? How can kidney patients find the right donor? Alvin Roth explains the rules and laws which govern these markets, but also shows how we can learn to influence them for our own benefit.
Organised in cooperation with the Siedler Verlag, the Consulate General of the United States Frankfurt, Goethe University of Frankfurt and Hessische Landeszentrale für politische Bildung

Free admission. Registration: achim.guessgen@hlz.hessen.de

NY Times report on incompatible kidney transplants

The New York Times has an article about a recent paper in the New England Journal of Medicine which reports that an incompatible kidney, transplanted after desensitization of the patient,  is now better than no transplant or a long wait to receive a deceased donor kidney. For the time being there seems to be no dispute that compatible kidneys are better if you can get them (so I don't anticipate that this will reduce the demand for kidney exchange).  This is part of a series of studies that make clear that a living donor kidney is generally more beneficial than a deceased donor kidney, and that long waits for transplants harm patients, particularly once they are on dialysis.

Here's the NY Times story: New Procedure Allows Kidney Transplants From Any Donor

Who Gets What and Why in Cologne: Wer kriegt was?

Today I speak in Cologne...

Nobel laureate Alvin E. Roth asks: Who Gets What – and Why?

Are you one of those people who believe that the word “market” only applies to large share deals? In Who Gets What – and Why, Alvin E. Roth, who won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work on game theory, shows us that market rules also apply when looking for a job or a school, or matching organ donors. Using specific examples, he explains how markets determine our lives – and how we can learn to use them to our advantage. Host: Nicole Bastian

 7:00pm  Börsensaal der IHK zu Köln, Unter Sachsenhausen 10-26, 50667 Köln

 Contributors

©privat

Roth, Alvin E.

©Pablo Castagnola / Handelsblatt

Bastian, Nicol

Who Gets What and Why at the European School of Management and Technology (ESMT), in Berlin.

I'm in Berlin to speak about Who Gets What and Why...

Wednesday, March 09, 2016, 07:00 pm

Who Gets What and Why: The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design

AMERICAN ACADEMY BOOK PRESENTATION

In his lecture, Alvin E. Roth shines a light on the everyday world of matching markets in diverse areas such as organ donation, public school choice programs, college admissions, employment, and online dating. Unlike commodity markets such as stocks and bonds, where price alone determines who gets what, in a matching market you are not free to choose but must also be chosen. Roth is in the forefront of the “market design” school, which aims to solve problems plaguing matching markets that are not “thick” enough (lacking sufficient participants) or suffer from “congestion” (an overwhelming range of options). As an example, he points out that over 100,000 people in the U.S. are waiting for kidney transplants, yet only about 11,000 non-directed kidneys become available each year. Using market design principles, Roth helped design the New England Program for Kidney Exchange. As another example, he examines the college application process, a vicious cycle in which, as students apply to more colleges, acceptance rates go down. After reading Roth’s book, readers may or may not make better matches, but they will better understand how matching markets work.

Moderated by Christoph von Marschall, Managing Editor, Der Tagesspiegel

In cooperation with Siedler Verlag and the European School of Management and Technology (ESMT).

Who Gets What and Why: The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design will be released
in March 2016 by Siedler Verlag as Wer kriegt was und warum? Bildung, Jobs und Partnerwahl: Wie Märkte funktionieren.

The lecture will take place at the European School of Management and Technology (ESMT), Schloßplatz 1, 10178 Berlin.

See also  ESMT Open Lecture und Buchpräsentation mit Wirtschaftsexperte und Nobelpreisträger Alvin E. Roth

James Hathaway: Plan for, rather than simply react to, refugee movements

Mitu Gulati points me to this piece by James Hathaway:
A global solution to a global refugee crisis
JAMES C. HATHAWAY 29 February 2016

His summary:

 How should we proceed?

A team of lawyers, social scientists, non-governmental activists, and governmental and intergovernmental officials, drawn from all parts of the world, worked for five years to conceive the model for a new approach to implementing the Refugee Convention. We reached consensus on a number of core principles.

1. Reform must address the circumstances of all states, not just the powerful few.

Most refugee “reform” efforts in recent years have been designed and controlled by powerful states—for example, Australia and the EU. There has been no effort to share out fairly in a binding way the much greater burdens and responsibilities of the less developed world, even at the level of financial contributions or guaranteed resettlement opportunities. This condemns poorer states and the 80% of refugees who live in them to mercurial and normally inadequate support—leading often to failure to respect refugee rights. It is also decidedly short-sighted in that the absence of meaningful protection options nearer to home is a significant driver of efforts to find extra-regional asylum, often playing into the strategies of smugglers and traffickers.

2. Plan for, rather than simply react to, refugee movements.

The international refugee system should commit itself to pre-determined burden (financial) sharing and responsibility (human) sharing quotas. Such factors as prior contributions to refugee protection, per capita GDP, and arable land provide sensible starting points for the allocation of shares of the financial and human dimensions of protection. But, as the recent abortive effort to come up with such shares ex post by the European Union makes clear, the insurance-based logic of standing allocations can only be accomplished in advance of any particular refugee movement.

3. Embrace common but differentiated state responsibility.  

There need be no necessary connection between the place where a refugee arrives and the state in which protection for duration of risk will occur, thus undercutting the logic of disguised economic migration via the refugee procedure. And rather than asking all states to take on the same protection roles, we should harness the ability and willingness of different states to assist in different ways. The core of the renewed protection regime should be common but differentiated responsibility, meaning that beyond the common duty to provide first asylum, states could assume a range of protection roles within their responsibility-sharing quota (protection for duration of risk; exceptional immediate permanent integration; residual resettlement)—though all states would be required to make contributions to both (financial) burden-sharing and (human) responsibility-sharing, with no trade-offs between the two.

4. Shift away from national, and towards international, administration of refugee protection.

We advocate a revitalized UNHCR to administer quotas, with authority to allocate funds and refugees based on respect for legal norms; and encouragement of a shift to common international refugee status determination system and group prima facie assessment to reduce processing costs, thereby freeing up funds for real and dependable support to front-line receiving countries—including start-up funds for economic development that links refugees to their host communities, and which facilitate their eventual return home. Our economists suggest that reallocation of the funds now spent on domestic asylum systems would more than suffice to fund this system. And since as described below positive refugee status recognition would have no domestic immigration consequence for the state in which status assessment occurs, this savings could be realized without engaging sovereignty concerns.

5. Protection for duration of risk, not necessarily permanent immigration.

We should be clear that this is a system for which migration is the means to protection, not an end in and of itself. Managed entry regimes should be promoted where feasible, though the right of refugees to arrive wherever they can reach without penalization for unlawful presence must be respected (thus undercutting the market for smugglers and traffickers). Some refugees—such as unaccompanied minors and victims of severe trauma—will require immediate permanent integration, though others should instead be granted rights-regarding protection for duration of risk. Creative development assistance linking refugees to host communities would increase the prospects for local integration, and many refugees will eventually feel able to return home. But for those still without access to either of these solutions at 5-7 years after arrival, residual resettlement would be guaranteed to those still at risk, enabling them to remake their lives with a guarantee of durable rights—in stark contrast to the present norm of often indefinite uncertainty.

If we are serious about avoiding continuing humanitarian tragedy—not just in Europe but throughout the world—then the present atomized and haphazard approach to refugee protection must end. The moment has come not to renegotiate the Refugee Convention, but rather at long last to operationalize that treaty in a way that works dependably, and fairly.

First paired kidney exchange transplant done in Singapore

Here's the story from the Straits Times, about a short non-directed donor chain:  First paired kidney exchange transplant done in Singapore

"Ms Siti was put on dialysis while waiting for a donor, but time was running out. It was then that doctors put forth a novel proposal, known as a paired kidney exchange transplant.  Under this arrangement, a good Samaritan would donate his or her kidney to Ms Siti. In exchange, Madam Rafidah would give one of her own kidneys to someone on the national waiting list.

"While this procedure has been approved since 2009, it has never been carried out due to the lack of a donor who is both willing and medically fit.
...
"Every year, said Professor A Vathsala, who is co-director of the National University Centre for Organ Transplantation at the National University Hospital, only two or three healthy people come forward to donate their kidneys. And of these, only one would be assessed as medically fit.

"On the other hand, the average person on the national waiting list for a new kidney would have to wait nearly a decade for a new organ."
**********

Other coverage:
First living paired kidney exchange in Singapore performed at NUH (news broadcast with a video.)
Posted 29 Feb 2016 15:50

Kidney exchange: a European research initiative

Here's an announcement of a European research initiative: European Network for Collaboration on Kidney Exchange Programmes

Penn celebrates differential privacy (and an application to anti-terrorism surveillance)

Briefly on Penn's front web page, here's the story.
Balancing Privacy and Security in Network Analysis

Something about the pictures caught my eye:

(L to R) Steven Wu, Michael Kearns, Aaron Roth, and Grigory Yaroslavtsev

Unified enrolment in Oakland

The NY Times has an article about controversies in Oakland public schools, including about the prospect of instituting a unified enrollment system that would give parents one application form for both district and charter schools:
Oakland District at Heart of Drive to Transform Urban Schools

"Mr. Wilson says that a single application form, where parents rank their choices among all schools and students are assigned through a computer algorithm, will reduce the ability of well-connected parents to place their children in the most desirable schools and force charters to be more open about how they admit students. Similar systems have been put in place in Washington and New Orleans and are being considered in Boston."

NYC High School Match Day

If you are a NYC 8th grader, or have one in your family, this is a big day. Good luck!

Chalkbeat has the story (with links to their earlier coverage of high school admissions):
On high school match day, a Chalkbeat guide to high school admissions debates
By Stephanie Snyder

"Most of New York City’s eighth-graders will find out what high school they were matched with on Friday — which means it’s going to be a day of stress, celebration, and a few tears.

"Students have been waiting for the last three months to hear where they would be placed after navigating the city’s complicated choice-based high school system. In December, nearly 75,000 teenagers finished that process, often sifting through a 649-page directory to find and rank their top picks."

Sri Lanka Destroys Illegal Elephant Tusks

 The NY Times has the story: Sri Lanka Destroys Illegal Elephant Tusks

"A group of saffron-robed monks chanted as officials crushed more than 300 elephant tusks in a seaside ceremony on Tuesday, as the new government of President Maithripala Sirisena sought to differentiate itself from its predecessor by sending a powerful message of intolerance for elephant poaching.

Sri Lanka is the first South Asian nation to publicly destroy ivory obtained through elephant poaching and the 16th country in the world to destroy confiscated elephant tusks so that they cannot be traded in the black market.

The previous Sri Lankan government, led by Mahinda Rajapaksa, had planned to distribute the tusks to Buddhist temples around the island, including the Sacred Temple of the Tooth, the country’s most revered. That spurred an outcry from Sri Lankan environmentalists and international wildlife agencies, who argued that the ivory would later be traded."

Signaling English language proficiency with video interviews

Colleges are increasingly availing themselves of video and internet technology to assess language skills of foreign applicants: see e.g. this story in the WaPo:
Amid fraud fears, colleges vet China applicants with video

I'm an advisor to one of the companies they mention, Initial View.

"One service provider, InitialView, was launched in Beijing in 2009 by an American couple. While many colleges have interviewed students themselves on the Internet, the company offers verification of student identities. InitialView conducts interviews in 14 cities across China and has begun operating in other countries. "
************

Here's an earlier, related NYT story: Chinese Students and U.S. Universities Connect Through a Third Party

First Uterus Transplant in the U.S., at the Cleveland Clinic

Uterus transplants were pioneered in Sweden, where surrogacy is illegal. But there is also demand in the U.S.

The NY Times has the story: First Uterus Transplant in U.S. Bolsters Pregnancy Hopes of Many

"The procedure’s purpose is to enable women born without a uterus, or who had theirs removed, to become pregnant and give birth. The patient will have to wait a year before trying to become pregnant, letting her heal and giving doctors time to adjust the doses of medication she needs to prevent organ rejection.

Then she will need in vitro fertilization to become pregnant. Before the transplant, the patient had eggs removed surgically, fertilized with her husband’s sperm and frozen. The embryos will be transferred into her uterus.

The transplant will be temporary: The uterus will be removed after the recipient has had one or two babies, so she can stop taking anti-rejection drugs.

The Cleveland hospital’s ethics panel has given it permission to perform the procedure 10 times, as an experiment. Officials will then decide whether to continue, and whether to offer the operation as a standard procedure. The clinic is still screening women who may be candidates for the operation.

The leader of the surgical team is Dr. Andreas G. Tzakis, who has performed 4,000 to 5,000 transplants of kidneys, livers and other abdominal organs. To prepare for uterus transplants, he traveled to Sweden and worked with doctors at the University of Gothenburg, the only ones in the world to have performed the procedure successfully so far. Nine women have had the operation in Sweden, with the transplants taken from living donors. At least four recipients have had babies, who were born healthy though premature.

About 50,000 women in the United States are thought to be candidates for transplanted uteruses."

Update on the Gastroenterology match

Dr Debbie Proctor at Yale, who was instrumental in re-starting the match for gastroenterology fellows, sends this update:

"The GI match is alive and well. The main concerns are still about "research" positions being offered outside the match, but when actually investigated, the evidence is slim to none that this happens and always with a good reason. That being said, I am sure there are some offers outside the match, but I estimate less than 10%.

We now match in Nov/Dec for people to start in July - 6-7 months later. The residents now interview in the middle of their 3rd year, which makes a huge difference. Remember, we used to interview them and make offers at the beginning of their 2nd year - right after completing internship? What a different 18 months makes in the careers of these young folks!"
******************

For those of you who haven't been following along for decades, here are links to some of the papers around the re-design and restart of the gastro match:

• Niederle, Muriel and Alvin E. Roth, "Unraveling reduces mobility in a labor market: Gastroenterology with and without a centralized match," Journal of Political Economy, 1. 111, no. 6, December 2003, 1342-1352. .
• Niederle, Muriel and Alvin E. Roth, "The Gastroenterology Fellowship Match: How it failed, and why it could succeed once again," Gastroenterology, 127, 2, August 2004, 658-666.
• McKinney, C. Nicholas, Niederle, Muriel and Alvin E. Roth, "The collapse of a medical labor clearinghouse (and why such failures are rare)," American Economic Review, 95, 3, June, 2005, 878-889.
• Niederle, Muriel and Alvin E. Roth, "The Gastroenterology Fellowship Market: Should there be a Match?," American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, 95,2, May, 2005, 372-375.
• Niederle, Muriel, Deborah D. Proctor and Alvin E. Roth, â€œWhat will be needed for the new GI fellowship match to succeed?,Gastroenterology, 130, January 2006, 218-224.
• Niederle, Muriel, Deborah D. Proctor and Alvin E. Roth, ''The Gastroenterology Fellowship Match: The First Two Years,''Gastroenterology , 135, 2 (August), 344-346, 2008.
• Niederle, Muriel, and Alvin E. Roth,''The Effects of a Central Clearinghouse on Job placement, Wages, and Hiring Practice'', inLabor Market Intermediation, David Autor, Editor, The University of Chicago Press, 2009, 273-306. 

The market for jobs in international schools (elementary through high school)

Two search firms seem to facilitate the market for teachers who want to work internationally:

International Schools Services, and Search Associates

Unraveling of the philosophy job market

The American Philosophical Society has posted the following Statement on the Job Market Calendar

The following statement was adopted by the board of officers at its November 2016 meeting. It is effective beginning with the 2016-2017 academic job market season. 

For tenure-track/continuing positions advertised in the second half of the calendar year, we recommend an application deadline of November 1 or later. It is further recommended that positions be advertised at least 30 days prior to the application deadline to ensure that candidates have ample time to apply.

In normal circumstances a prospective employee should have at least two weeks for consideration of a written offer from the hiring institution, and responses to offers of a position whose duties begin in the succeeding fall should not be required before February 1.

When advertising in PhilJobs: Jobs for Philosophers, advertisers will be asked to confirm that the hiring institution will follow the above guidelines. If an advertiser does not do so, the advertisement will include a notice to that effect.

The Chronicle of Higher Ed has picked up the story this month:
A Disciplinary Association Aims to Rein In a ‘Chaotic’ Hiring Calendar

"Q. What problem is this statement reacting to?

A. Over the last few years, as more philosophy departments have moved away from in-person interviews at the APA’s Eastern Division meeting and toward other approaches, such as web-based interviews or elimination of first-round interviews altogether, we’ve begun hearing from members that application deadlines have crept earlier and earlier, as have deadlines for accepting offers of employment.

These changes have disadvantaged job candidates by, for example, forcing them to make a decision on an offer from one institution before having even been interviewed by another. Many members, as well as an internal APA task force, have suggested that an APA policy statement would help to address these concerns about the job-market calendar.

Q. What are the goals of this statement? What would the APA like the calendar to look like?

A. Our goals with this statement are to set clear expectations for hiring departments, and also, by including a notice on ads for jobs that don’t follow the calendar, to provide job candidates with better information at the outset of their job searches so that they can make more-informed decisions.

The statement specifies the earliest date by which applications for academic positions should be required, and the earliest date by which final acceptance of offers of employment should be required — the two portions of the job-market calendar that are of most concern to our members. We respect that different departments have different approaches to the hiring process, so the statement is limited to just those two dates."

HT: Ricky Vohra