Understanding Markets Can Save Lives: Congressional Briefing and Reception, April 18

The Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA), of which the American Economic Association is a member, is sponsoring a Congressional Briefing on April 18. If you're in Washington next Tuesday you could come and cheer on those Congress folks who are interested in supporting science.

WHY SOCIAL SCIENCE? Because Understanding Markets Can Save Lives: Congressional Briefing and Reception

April 18 @ 3:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Discussion with Alvin Roth, Winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Economics

Tuesday April 18, 2017
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Reception from 4:30 – 6:00 pm
2167 Rayburn House Office Building

RSVP by April 13.

Dr. Alvin Roth is the Craig and Susan McCaw Professor of Economics at Stanford University, and the George Gund Professor Emeritus of Economics and Business Administration at Harvard University. Dr. Roth’s fundamental research in market design has revolutionized kidney exchanges, allowing incompatible patient-donor pairs to find compatible kidneys for transplantation. Dr. Roth’s matching theories have also been applied to school matching systems used in New York City, Boston, Denver, New Orleans, and several other cities, among other applications.

Come learn how social science can have real, significant impacts on our everyday lives, often in unexpected ways.

This widely attended event is made possible with support from Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson and SAGE Publishing.

An unconvincing denial of police murders of gay men in Chechnya

The Guardian has the story. File this under "unconvincing denials."

Chechen police 'have rounded up more than 100 suspected gay men'
Russian newspaper says it has evidence that at least three men have been killed 

"The report was denied by the spokesman of the Chechen president, Ramzan Kadyrov, who suggested there were no gay people in the Muslim-majority region.
Ali Karimov said, according to the state news agency RIA Novosti: “It’s impossible to persecute those who are not in the republic.”
“If such people existed in Chechnya, law enforcement would not have to worry about them, as their own relatives would have sent them to where they could never return,” Karimov added."

College admissions in Denmark

There is a centralized college admissions system in Denmark, the KOT:
How to apply for a higher education programme in Denmark

Here's a recent article (in Danish) which I think says that the KOT uses a deferred acceptance algorithm:
Nobelprisvindende algoritme afgør, om du kommer ind på drømmestudiet

Google translate:
Nobel Prize-winning algorithm determines whether you enter the dreams studio
"Every year, nearly 100,000 young people into education via KOT, and there are many myths about how the coveted student places are allocated. Some think that it helps to think strategically with the priorities, but in fact is honesty the best strategy. There is namely a clever algorithm behind the distribution, which guarantees you a place on the best possible education, writes Troels Bjerre Lund, associate professor at the ITU."

School choice: the difference between common application and unified enrollment

 Joe Siedlecki of the Dell Foundation writes about school choice, with an emphasis on unified enrollment. (All of the unified enrollment systems mentioned below were designed with the help of the Institute for Innovation in Public School Choice, IIPSC.)

All enrollment reforms are not created equal
Apr 04, 2017 ·

Common application ≠ unified enrollment

More specifically, a common application used across schools is not a unified enrollment system.  While both reforms may be an improvement on the existing “wild west” of school choice, they have different characteristics and they attempt to solve different problems.  The table below lays out some key characteristics of these different enrollment reforms, both of which are being pursued inn different places across the country.

Source: Michael & Susan Dell Foundation

Source: Michael & Susan Dell Foundation

The Brookings school choice index

Brookings has released their school choice index:

The 2016 Education and Choice Competition Index

Denver won the top spot for large districts for second year in a row in the 2016 Education Choice and Competition Index (ECCI). The Recovery District serving New Orleans came in second. Denver and the Recovery District were the only two districts in the ECCI that receive grades of A on school choice.

Here are the top 12, of 112.

. 

Many of the school districts in the top 12 spots have had help from economists, including the top 5.  Much of that help has lately been organized through IIPSC, the Institute for Innovation in Public School Choice.

Thank a scientist: ad campaign from National Academy of Sciences

Series Update: From Research to Reward From Research to Reward, the NAS series of articles and videos about the human benefits that arise from discoveries made through scientific research, is being promoted through Washington Post ads, broadcast messages on Washington’s NPR station, placement of ads on social media, and a telephone campaign aimed at making prospective partners aware of the availability of the materials for their own use. All products to date focus on the social and behavioral sciences. A new phase of the project will concern the geosciences and other natural sciences. Here's a picture of the Washington Post ad about economics, featuring kidney exchange: , (Here's my earlier post on the NAS video from which that picture comes: The human side of kidney exchange: video from NAS (5 minutes)

Top Trading Cycle algorithms in School Choice

Here is some theory of top trading cycles, together with our experience from school choice in New Orleans.

And here:
Minimizing Justified Envy in School Choice:The Design of New Orleans’ OneApp

Atila Abdulkadiroglu, Yeon-Koo Che, Parag A. Pathak,Alvin E. Roth, and Olivier Tercieux

March 2017

Abstract: In 2012, New Orleans Recovery School District (RSD) became the first U.S. district to unify charter and traditional public school admissions in a single-offer assignment mechanism known as OneApp.  The RSD also became the first district to use a mechanism based on TopTrading Cycles (TTC) in a real-life allocation problem.  Since TTC was originally devised for settings in which agents have endowments, there is no formal rationale for TTC in school choice.  In particular,  TTC is a Pareto efficient and strategy-proof mechanism,  but so are other mechanisms.  We show that TTC is constrained-optimal in the following sense:  TTC minimizes  justified  envy  among  all  Pareto  efficient  and  strategy-proof  mechanisms  when each school has one seat.  When schools have more than one seat, there are multiple possible implementations of TTC. Data from New Orleans and Boston indicate that there is little difference across these versions of TTC, but significantly less justified envy compared to a serial dictatorship

Interview in La Vanguardia

When I was in Barcelona I was interviewed by Lluis Amiguet for La Vanguardia:

Alvin Roth, premio Nobel de Economía, presidente de la Asociación Americana de Economía
"¿Edad? Ser viejo es estupendo si consideras la alternativa. He diseñado métodos de emparejar donantes y receptores de riñón y de que cada niño encuentre escuela en Nueva York y Boston. Soy flamante académico de la Racef, ahora en el Instituto de España, y asesoro a la Barcelona GSE"

The photo is by Kim Manresa:

Julio Rotemberg (1953-2017)

An email from Nitin Nohria at HBS brings the sad news that Julio Rotemberg passed away this weekend after his long struggle with cancer.

In January I had the privilege of welcoming him as a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association. The citation ended by noting that "he is among the preeminent macro- economists of his generation through his many research contributions and their influence on the policy community."

Here we were in Chicago, at the 2017 AEA/ASSA meetings, where he accepted the award.

Surrogacy (and transplantation) in Spain

The Director of Spain's National Transplant Organization has an article comparing transplants to surrogacy (presently illegal in Spain). He proposes that altruistic (unpaid) surrogacy be legalized in Spain, and makes a comparison with the current Spanish law allowing only unpaid kidney donation.

Trasplantes y gestación subrogada  (Transplants and gestational surrogacy).
RAFAEL MATESANZ
DIRECTOR DE LA ORGANIZACIÓN NACIONAL DE TRASPLANTES

Emanuel Vespa has kindly translated the critical paragraph as follows:

"Legislation guided by the Spanish transplant legislation, which is itself based on altruism and anonymity, would allow regulating a small portion of cases in which the surrogate is a family member of friend who is neither forced nor monetarily compensated. It may also be possible to recreate something akin to altruistic organ donation, where women who would offer themselves as surrogates would play the role of `good samaritans' in anonymous and altruistic fashion. It is admittedly hard to imagine, but not more difficult to conceive than people who donate a kidney in similar circumstances, and there are hundreds of such candidates."

The Central European University is worth defending from government pressure

The Central European University in Budapest is in danger of being forced to shut down.

World’s leading economists ask Hungary to withdraw anti-CEU legislation

"More than 150 prominent European and American economists, including Presidents of European Economic Associations and more than a dozen Nobel Prize Laureates, have signed an open letter asking Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government to withdraw legislation that would force Central European University to shut down in Budapest. "
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And here's a Statement of solidarity with Central European University, from their colleagues at the Center for Economic and Regional Studies at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (CERS HAS).

Headlines that could have run on April 1

What was he thinking? Plane passenger stopped at Stansted with iPhone case shaped like a gun

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Pretender to France's non-existent throne embroiled in succession row 

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Icelandic president admits he does not have the legal authority to ban pineapple on pizza
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A Paid Hour a Week for Sex? Swedish Town Considers It

Barcelona Graduate School of Economics celebrates its 10th anniversary

The Barcelona Graduate School of Economics is 10!

There are a number of events and workshops.

The main celebration of this milestone will take place in Barcelona on March 31 and April 1, 2017.

FRIDAY, MARCH 31

Roundtable with members of the Barcelona GSE Scientific Council 
"The Practical Influence of Economic Research"

12:00, UPF Auditorium

Students, alumni, faculty, and friends are invited to attend this panel discussion with distinguished members of the Barcelona GSE Scientific Council:

• 
  
  Richard Blundell
  University College London
• 
  
  Matthew Jackson
  Stanford University
• 
  
  Anne Krueger
  Johns Hopkins University
• 
  
  Alvin Roth
  Stanford University
  NOBEL LAUREATE
• 
  
  Christopher Sims
  Princeton University
  NOBEL LAUREATE

Tribute and conversation with 2016 Nobel Laureates

Oliver Hart (Harvard University) and Bengt Holmström (MIT) are both members of the Barcelona GSE Scientific Council. There will be a brief tribute and conversation with Professors Hart and Holmström immediately following the roundtable.

• 
  
  Oliver Hart
  Harvard University
  NOBEL LAUREATE 2016
• 
  
  Bengt Holmström
  MIT
  NOBEL LAUREATE 2016

Barcelona GSE 10 years review

13:30, UPF Auditorium

• 
  
  Joaquín Almunia
  Honorary President of the Barcelona GSE
• 
  
  Ramon Marimon
  Chairman of the Board of Trustees
• 
  
  Andreu Mas-Colell
  Founder of the BGSE
• 
  
  Hugo Sonnenschein
  Honorary President of the BGSE Scientific Council

Lunch and Happy Birthday Barcelona GSE

14:00, outside UPF Auditorium

Research Workshops

16:00-17:30, UPF Building 40

Faculty, researchers, and Scientific Council members will participate in three concurrent research workshops:

Applied Economics Workshop (Room 40.008):

• Libertad González (UPF and BGSE) 
• Hannes Mueller (IAE-CSIC and BGSE)
• Marta Reynal-Querol (ICREA-UPF and BGSE)

Chair: Orley Ashenfelter (Princeton University and BGSE Scientific Council)

Macroeconomics Workshop (Room 40.010):

• Davide Debortoli (UPF and BGSE)
• Luca Gambetti (UAB and BGSE)
• Alberto Martin (CREI, UPF and BGSE)

Chair: Nancy Stokey (University of Chicago and BGSE Scientific Council)

Microeconomics Workshop (Room 40.012):

• José Apesteguía (ICREA-UPF and BGSE)
• Jordi Brandts (IAE-CSIC and BGSE)
• Pau Milán (UAB and BGSE)

Chair: Ariel Rubinstein (Tel Aviv University and BGSE Scientific Council)

Download the workshop program | Register to attend a workshop

Alumni Reunion and Network Activities

See the reunion page for details and registration.

SATURDAY, APRIL 1

Scientific Council Meeting

On Saturday, the Barcelona GSE Scientific Council Meeting will take place at the Institute for Economic Analysis (IAE-CSIC) at UAB Bellaterra Campus. 

Alumni Reunion and Network Activities

See the reunion page for details and registration.

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Share your memories from the Barcelona GSE's first ten years: #BGSE10

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Here's a news story (courtesy of Google translate):
The center of the UPF and UAB, founded by Andreu Mas-Colell has trained 2,000 students from one hundred countries and ranks as one of the best economic research institutes in the world

BGSE 10th Anniversary celebration reunites more than 350 people who have shaped our first decade

Market design and kidney exchange at the Royal Academy of Economics and Finance in Barcelona

I'll speak at and become a foreign member of the Royal Academy of Economics and Finance (RACEF), in Barcelona this evening.

El Nobel de Economía Alvin Roth ingresa en la Real Academia de Ciencias Económicas y Financieras

Here's a recent article about RACEF, which is based in Barcelona, while the other Royal Spanish Academies are based in Madrid:
RACEF, la Academia con sede en Barcelona que ya cotiza en el Instituto de España
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And here's a photo (I'm the one in the blue shirt):

More photographs here.

Update: and here's a video, in English and Spanish.

Kidney exchange, in Spanish, from the BBC

Alvin Roth, el premio Nobel de economía que sin buscarlo acabó salvando miles de vidas, Redacción BBC Mundo 14 marzo 2017

G translate (from the text): "According to data the BBC Department of Blood and Transplants gave to BBC Mundo, in 2015, 123 chain transplants were made out of a total of 1025 live kidney donations.
In Spain , a world leader in organ transplantation, the first cross-transplant was also performed for the first time in 2009. In 2015 , 125 patients received a kidney with this system ."

I speak about school choice at The Economic Club of Indiana

I'll speak in Indianapolis about Market Design and Unified Enrollment School Choice.

Dr. Alvin Roth, Stanford University and Nobel Prize in Economics

Date:  March 28, 2017

Time:  12:00 pm

Location: Indiana Convention Center

 

Known for his emphasis on applying economic theory to solution for “real-world” problems, Dr. Alvin Roth serves as the Craig and Susan McCaw professor of economics at Stanford University and the Gund professor of economics and business administration emeritus at Harvard University. Roth has made many significant contributions to the fields of game theory, market design and experimental economics. In 2012, Roth won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences jointly with Lloyd Shapley “for the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design.” Roth is a graduate of Columbia University and Stanford University
.

Columbia U. Economic Theory Workshop today: Stable matching in centralized and decentralized markets

I'll speak at Columbia today, partly on a paper with Qingyun Wu, and partly on the larger question of why stable matching mechanisms seem to be very important for centralized clearinghouses, but may provide less insight into how decentralized markets resolve themselves.

"Stable matching in centralized and decentralized markets"

MAR

27

Monday

FINANCE AND ECONOMICS: ECONOMIC THEORY WORKSHOP

Al Roth (Stanford) 

2:30 - 3:45  |  INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS BUILDING 1101

Blasphemy as a repugnant transaction in Pakistan

The Guardian has the latest:
Pakistan asks Facebook and Twitter to help identify blasphemers
Companies approached in effort to locate Pakistanis at home or abroad so they can be prosecuted or potentially extradited

"Under the country’s strict blasphemy laws, anyone found to have insulted Islam or the prophet Muhammad can be sentenced to death.

The interior minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, said an official in Pakistan’s Washington embassy had approached the two social media companies in an effort to identify Pakistanis, either within the country or abroad, who recently shared material deemed offensive to Islam.

He said Pakistani authorities had identified 11 people for questioning over alleged blasphemy and would seek the extradition of anyone living abroad.

Facebook said it reviews all government requests carefully, “with the goal of protecting the privacy and rights of our users”."

Kidney donation in Tennessee

Here's a story from the Tennessee Tribune, about Dr. Clarence Foster, an African-American transplant surgeon, who is trying to raise awareness among minority patients.

Minorities Wait for Kidney Transplants

"In 2016, 226 African American Tennesseans received a kidney transplant compared to 222 white and ten Hispanics, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The numbers are almost identical for 2015.

But, the list for Tennessee residents who need kidney transplant is far longer. Last year, 1, 283 African Americans, 1,166 Whites, 63 Hispanics and 29 Asians, 9 Native American and 29 Multi-Racial people waited for kidney transplants.

Jill Grandas confirmed that the numbers of African Americans waiting for a kidney are almost equal to white patients.

“Among patients in Tennessee waiting for a kidney, about 50 percent are African Americans and they are transplanted at almost the same rate – 48 percent of the patients who received a kidney were African American.”

However, in Tennessee, the number of African American kidney donors is far less than the need. Last year, 211 kidneys were donated by white donors, 43 by black donors, 11 by Hispanic donors and 2 Asian donors and these were from deceased donors.  Among living donors (usually a close family member) there were 55 white donors, 7 black, one Hispanic and one Asian.

“Among, 2,107,231 on the ‘Donate Life Tennessee Organ and Tissue Donor Registry,’ 9.2 percent are African Americans,” said Grandas.

“Our rate of donation from African Americans is much less than from other races. We would assume that if more African Americans would donate, more African American patients would receive an organ from an African American donor.”

“African Americans can safely be a living donor.  We need to overcome the mistrust between the community and the medical profession,” said Dr. Foster."

Bob Wilson and Game Theory: two very short videos

In connection with Bob Wilson's 2017 CME Group-MSRI prize, here's a short (2 minute)video in which Roger Myerson, Phil Reny, Bob Wilson, David Eisenbud, and I respond to the question "What is game theory?"  (Phil also remarks on what role it has played in his long happy marriage...)

And there's another short video (which I couldn't embed), talking about Bob Wilson, at this link to the CME prize page (scroll down til you see the game theory video, it's right next to it):
Robert Wilson Awarded the 2016 CME Group-MSRI Prize in Innovative Quantitative Applications