Repugnant statistical analyses

Joshua Gans points us to an unusual case of repugnance. Here's the beginning of Joshua's blog post:

The unintended consequences of France’s ban on statistical analysis of Judges

"If someone had said that I would be writing a blog post to consider a law that might imprison people for conducting statistical analysis on publicly available data, I would have thought that was unlikely because who would ever propose, let alone enact, such a law?

"The other day we got our answer: France! The very country that produced Laplace, Pascal and Guerry!

"The law in question is Article 33 of the Justice Reform Act which was amended to read as follows:

"The identity data of magistrates and members of the judiciary cannot be reused with the purpose or effect of evaluating, analysing, comparing or predicting their actual or alleged professional practices.

"That maximum sentence (yes, criminal sentence) for violating this is 5 years. This puts ‘statistics’ in the category of a crime. Notice that it is actually using the data for a specific purpose and not something else like publishing outcomes that violate privacy.

What this means is that you cannot do statistical analyses that compare judges. "
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Here's a news article from a site called Artificial Lawyer, devoted to legal tech:

France Bans Judge Analytics, 5 Years In Prison For Rule Breakers

"In a startling intervention that seeks to limit the emerging litigation analytics and prediction sector, the French Government has banned the publication of statistical information about judges’ decisions – with a five year prison sentence set as the maximum punishment for anyone who breaks the new law.

"Owners of legal tech companies focused on litigation analytics are the most likely to suffer from this new measure.

"The new law, encoded in Article 33 of the Justice Reform Act, is aimed at preventing anyone – but especially legal tech companies focused on litigation prediction and analytics – from publicly revealing the pattern of judges’ behaviour in relation to court decisions.

"A key passage of the new law states:

‘The identity data of magistrates and members of the judiciary cannot be reused with the purpose or effect of evaluating, analysing, comparing or predicting their actual or alleged professional practices.’ "

Kidney exchange is an intercommunal activity

From the Times of India:
A kidney swap involving Hindu, Muslim families that resurrected faith in humanity 
 

"CHANDIGARH: At a time when communal disharmony has become the norm in many parts of the world, a hospital in Mohali just resurrectected faith in humanity..."

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And from the New Indian Express:

Unique kidney transplant saves Hindu woman from Bihar and Muslim man from Kashmir

The families crossed paths three months after they got themselves registered in a mobile app iKidney, developed by Dr Priyadarshini Ranjan.

      

Will satellite companies sell C-Band spectrum by auction?

Auctionomics, the auction design company founded by my colleague Paul Milgrom, has been working with satellite broadcasters Intelsat (NYSE: I), SES (Euronext Paris: SESG), Eutelsat (Euronext Paris: ETL) and Telesat (the C- Band Alliance) to auction some of the rights to their C-Band spectrum.  Here's a press release

C-Band Alliance Filing on Proposed Commercial Auction Process

and here's a Bloomberg story:
Intelsat, SES Unveil Design for Private Sale of 5G Airwaves

It appears that the proposed auction is modeled on the FCC's incentive auction that repurposed some television broadcast spectrum licenses.  See my last year's post

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

The incentive auction (for radio spectrum) in three videos

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Update: the white paper, FUEL for 5G: Flexible Use and Efficient Licensing can be found here, preceded by a cover letter to the FCC.

Maine yesterday became 8th state to legalize assisted suicide

The AP has the story:

Maine becomes 8th state to legalize assisted suicide

"Maine legalized medically assisted suicide on Wednesday, becoming the eighth state to allow terminally ill people to end their lives with prescribed medication.

"Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who had previously said she was unsure about the bill, signed it in her office.

“It is my hope that this law, while respecting the right to personal liberty, will be used sparingly,” said Mills.

"Oregon was the first state to legalize such assistance, in 1997, and it took over a decade for the next state, Washington, to follow suit. While still controversial, assisted suicide legislation is winning increasing acceptance in the United States, and this year at least 18 states considered such measures.

"Maine’s measure will allow doctors to prescribe a fatal dose of medication to terminally ill people. It declares that obtaining or administering life-ending medication is not suicide under state law, thereby legalizing the practice often called medically assisted suicide.

"The proposal had failed once in a statewide referendum and at least seven previous times in the Legislature. The current measure passed by just one vote in the House and a slim margin in the Senate.
...
"Maine joins seven other states and Washington, D.C., that have similar laws, according to the Death With Dignity National Center and the Death With Dignity Political Fund. The states are: California, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and New Jersey, whose governor signed the legislation earlier this year.

"Montana doesn’t have a specific law on the books, but the state Supreme Court ruled in 2009 that doctors could use a patient’s request for life-ending medication as a defense against criminal charges."

Kidney trafficking in Egypt with Yemeni brokers and donors (video from Al Jazeera)

Al Jazeera reports that there is an active market for kidneys in Egypt, fueled by brokers in Yemen and abetted by the Yemeni embassy in Egypt, and a famous hospital there.




HT: Erling Skancke 

Adoption is complex even when it doesn't include State and Tribal rights...

Foster care and adoption are always complex, and never more so when not only families and children are involved, but also States and Native American tribes.  Here's a NY Times story on a complex case, involving a little boy and his sister, the family who adopted the boy and would like to adopt his sister, the biological mother who would like to see the adoption go through, the tribe that opposes it, and the courts.

Who Can Adopt a Native American Child? A Texas Couple vs. 573 Tribes

A bitter custody battle threatens affirmative action laws, tribal rights, and the future of one little girl.

"Zachary, or A.L.M. as he is called in legal papers, has a Navajo birth mother, a Cherokee birth father and adoptive parents, Jennifer and Chad Brackeen, neither of whom is Native American. The Brackeens are challenging a federal law governing Native American children in state foster care: It requires that priority to adopt them be given to Native families, to reinforce the children’s tribal identity.

"Last fall, a federal judge ruled in the Brackeens’ favor, declaring that the law, the Indian Child Welfare Act, was unconstitutional — in part, he said, because it was based on race.

"The case is now before a federal appeals court. Whoever loses is almost certain to ask the Supreme Court to hear it."

Fighting trafficking by decriminalizing sex work in Mexico City

The Guardian has the story:

Mexico City will decriminalize sex work in move against trafficking

"Mexico City lawmakers have given the green light to decriminalize sex work in the capital, hoping it will be a first step to a crackdown on sex trafficking that traps thousands of Mexican women and children.

"Lawmakers in Mexico City’s congress on Friday voted 38-0, with eight abstentions, in favor of a bill to remove a line in the civic culture law which said prostitutes and their clients can be fined or arrested if neighbors complained.

"Temistocles Villanueva, a local representative with the ruling center-left Morena party, said the new law recognized that people had the right to engage in sex work.

“It’s a first step that has to lead to regulation of sex work, to fight human trafficking and strengthen the rights of sex workers,” he said. “Exercising sexuality in our country is still a taboo topic that few of us dare to talk about.“

"Sex work is allowed in much of Mexico but states have different and sometimes unclear rules, meaning workers frequently operate in legal vacuums which can leave them vulnerable to exploitation and trafficking by crime gangs.

"Mexico is a source, transit and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor, with Mexican women and children the most at risk from sex trafficking, according to the US state department."

The politics of prostitution in the U.S.

The NY Times has the story:
Could Prostitution Be the Next Vice to Be Decriminalized?  By Jesse McKinley

"Marijuana has gone mainstream, casino gambling is everywhere and sports wagering is spreading. Could prostitution be next?

Lawmakers across the country are beginning to reconsider how to handle prostitution, as calls for decriminalization are slowly gaining momentum.

"Decriminalization bills have been introduced in Maineand Massachusetts; a similar bill is expected to be introduced to the City Council in Washington D.C. in June; and lawmakers in Rhode Island held hearings last month on a proposal to study the impact of decriminalizing prostitution.

"New York may be next: Some Democratic lawmakers are about to propose a comprehensive decriminalization bill that would eliminate penalties for both women and men engaged in prostitution, as well as the johns whom they service.

...

"The debate is unquestionably polarizing in many circles, even among advocates for sex-trafficked and abused women who fear that creating a legal path for prostitution will not eliminate, but rather actually encourage, underground sex trafficking.

...

"Still, the issue has crept into the Democratic Party’s nascent presidential campaign: In late February, Senator Kamala Harris of California became the first candidate to endorse some manner of decriminalization, an idea also floated by another contender, the former Colorado governor, John Hickenlooper.

...

"Supporters of decriminalization see their efforts as part of a larger, decades-long liberalization of American mores, like lifting Sunday bans on selling alcohol and legalizing marijuana. They also frame the issue as an act of harm-reduction for prostitutes and a tacit admission that modern law enforcement and age-old moral indignation has done little to stem the practice.

“We’ve learned this lesson many times with the prohibition of alcohol, or criminalization of abortion, or even the criminalization of marijuana: The black market creates dark circumstances and provides cover for a lot of violence and exploitation,” said Kaytlin Bailey, a comedian and former prostitute who serves as the spokeswoman for Decriminalize Sex Work, which was founded last year."

Matching in Practice Workshop in October, in Gothenburg, with Parag Pathak. Call for papers.

The 16th Matching in Practice Workshop will be in Gothenburg. The workshop will begin with lunch (12pm) on the 4th of October finishing early afternoon 5th of October (around 4pm), 2019.

The workshop will bring together researchers working on the various aspects of assignment and matching in education, labour and related markets, with a view to actively foster interactions between the various approaches used in this area of research (theory, experiments, analysis of field data, policy/market design) and to share expertise on the actual functioning of these markets in Europe.

The workshop will include presentations from presenters of selected papers, a keynote delivered by Parag Pathak (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and a policy roundtable on “School choice in practice”, which will bring together policy makers and practitioners.

Interested participants should submit their papers to mip2019@economics.gu.se before 15 August 2019. The programme will be announced shortly afterwards.

Keynote speakers

Parag Pathak, Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Participants

Researchers working on the various aspects of assignment and matching, primarily in (but not limited to) education and related labour markets are invited to attend the workshop. There is no participation fee. Travel and accommodation expenses can only be covered for presenters of selected papers. PhD students or early stage researchers who would like to participate the workshop can contact us for possible financial support for travel and accommodation.

Practicalities

The conference will take place at the School of Business, Economics and Law (Handelshögskolan), Vasagatan 1, Gothenburg.

Scientific Committee

Thilo Klein (ZEW Mannheim), Alex Westkamp (University of Cologne), Li Chen (University of Gothenburg), Joseph Vecci (University of Gothenburg).

Important dates

15 August: Deadline for submission
1 September: Notification about acceptance
3 September: Registration deadline

Who gets what at UC Irvine

I'll be speaking today at UC Irvine, here's the announcement:

“Who Gets What? The New Economics of Matching and Market Design”
Date: Friday, June 7, 2019 at 1:30-2:30 p.m.
Location: UCI’s Calit2 Auditorium
Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis
Lunch Reception & Book Signing: 12-1:30 p.m.

Abstract
Market design is an ancient human activity but a relatively new part of economics. It seeks to understand how the design of markets and marketplaces influences their performance, to use this growing understanding to fix markets when they’re broken, and to help to establish markets where they are missing.

Many markets are matching markets, in which you can’t just choose what you want, even if you can afford it: you also have to be chosen. In these markets, prices don’t do all the work. For example, UCI doesn’t choose its new students by raising the tuition until just enough applications remain to fill the entering class; instead they set the price low enough so that lots of people apply, and then they choose from a big pool. (And UCI can’t just choose its students; it has to woo them in competition with other schools...) Other examples of matching markets are labor markets (workers can’t just choose where to work, nor can employers just choose who will work for them), school choice, and kidney exchange. I’ll illustrate with examples from these.

Someone is impersonating me on LinkedIn

An alert MIT grad student received a LinkedIn request that appeared to be from me, except not quite, and was kind enough to let me know. (In fact I don't have a LinkedIn account...)

There is someone on LinkedIn, it turns out, pretending to be me--same name, same jobs at Harvard and Stanford, same 2012 Nobel prize. Here's his profile:
 https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-roth-a37995186/

If you have a LinkedIn account, you can go to that profile, click on the three dot link, and get to a link called Report, one of whose options is to 'report an impersonator'.  (You can't send any explanatory text, so maybe getting many such reports will prompt LinkedIn to do something, where one or two haven't yet done the trick...)

thanks,
al

p.s. Here's the LinkedIn help page for reporting fake profiles (if you have a LinkedIn account).
***************
Update: LinkedIn followed up pretty quickly, and apparently nuked the fake account:

Response (06/06/2019 23:02 CST)

Hi Alvin,

I hope this email finds you well and that you are having a fantastic day, I'm Heisenberg from the Safety Operations Team and I'll be happy to assist you!

Thanks for informing us of this situation.

It is against the terms of LinkedIn's User Agreement and Professional Community Policies to impersonate another person on the website. We'll take the appropriate action based on the results of our investigation.

Thanks for your assistance in making LinkedIn a professional and trustworthy site.

Regards,

Heisenberg
LinkedIn Safety Operations Support Specialist 

Stanford GSB interviews Ashutosh Thakur PhD ’20, about market design, and coffee

GSB interviews Ashutosh Thakur, PhD ’20, who speaks about market design, his work on political allocation systems in India and the U.S., and coffee. (He'll be on the market next year...)

"Ashutosh Thakur is using matching and game theory to study institutional design in some unusual places.

"Thakur, a doctoral candidate in political economics at Stanford GSB, is trying to determine if systems designed for matching, say, medical students with residency posts can also be used to improve the effectiveness of public administration. He is specifically interested in the allocation of civil servants to diverse regions across India and in the party-specific procedures used in the U.S. Senate to assign politicians to committees.

“These projects take the theoretical tools and apply them to real-world problems and systems in practice,” says the Princeton graduate. “I’m hoping to improve government administration and development, trying to not just write academic papers but also use the findings to inform policymaking.”

"Thakur is also an expert chess player and an accomplished musician — pastimes that connect in their own way to his work."

Read about his work at the link. Here's the final question and answer:

"Have you had any memorable Stanford GSB experiences or encounters?
"One of the primary reasons the Stanford market design group is so tightly knit is due to Alvin Roth’s efforts in bringing the group together. He institutionalized this 45-minute coffee every Wednesday morning. It’s an informal, interdisciplinary gathering of faculty and students from the economics department, business school, engineering, and computer science, along with occasional guests and practitioners who might be visiting the area. It’s just a bunch of people getting together to talk about things they find interesting and what they’re working on. It’s been great at helping to build a community across all these different disciplines and getting exposure to a broad range of topics and applications."

MARKETPLACE INNOVATION WORKSHOP at Stanford GSB

Here's the program for the MARKETPLACE INNOVATION WORKSHOP at Stanford GSB:

JUNE 4, 2019

June 5

Steps towards reimbursing kidney donors--update from Frank McCormick

 I've written before about NLDAC, the federally funded National Living Donor Assistance Center, which operates under many regulatory constraints. (I'm on their advisory board.)

Frank McCormick brings us up to date on recent steps to relax some of those constraints.  Below I quote from his recent email:

"Since 2007, the federal government has had a program to reimburse low income organ donors for their travel and lodging expenses.  This program is currently administered by National Living Donor Assistance Center (NLDAC) at the University of Arizona.   The Secretary of Health and Human services (HHS) has the legal authority to administratively expand the mandate of this program.  Toward that end, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has just scheduled a new rule change:

Title: Removing Financial Disincentives to Living Organ Donation 

Abstract: This proposed rule would amend the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) final rule to further remove financial barriers to living organ donation by expanding allowable costs that can be reimbursed.  The changes would apply to specified incidental nonmedical expenses incurred toward living organ donation. 


2. The second front is centered on the Advisory Committee on Organ Transplant (ACOT), a non-government committee that advises the Secretary of HHS on organ transplant matters.  At its meeting on May 20, the committee heard a very informative presentation by Robert Merion of NLDAC: 

A key part of the presentation was NLDAC’s Vision for Expansion:
1. Expand eligibility for reimbursement to donors with incomes up to 500% of the federal poverty guidelines (it is currently 300%)
2. Waive income verification for donors needing less than $500
3. Approve applications from non-directed donors (i.e., living donors who do not have a specific intended recipient)
4. Reimburse wages lost due to organ donation
5. Reimburse child care/elder care expenses due to organ donation
6. Require NLDAC information to be given to all recipients and donors

ACOT endorsed the first five recommendations and forwarded them to the Secretary of HHS. "

A third life for a transplanted liver in Hong Kong

The South China Morning Post has the story, of a transplanted liver that survived its recipient and was successfully transplanted into a second recipient following the death of the first recipient (11 years after receiving the transplant):

World first as Hong Kong surgeons transplant single liver into second patient
World-first procedure sees organ transplanted 11 years ago successfully given to another patient

"Hong Kong surgeons have performed a double world first with a transplant from one Hepatitis B sufferer to another of a liver that had already been transplanted once 11 years ago.
Bodybuilder Wong Wan-shing, 37, received the graft at Queen Mary Hospital from a 60-year-old donor identified only as Mr So, who died of a stroke on October 1."

Will NYC ban fur sales?

The NY Times has the story:

Proposed Fur Ban in New York Pits Animal Rights Advocates Against Black Ministers

"As Corey Johnson, the speaker of the New York City Council, urged his colleagues on Wednesday to ban the sale of fur in the city, he argued that it was the “moral thing to do.”

"But the proposed ban, backed by animal rights advocates, has met an unexpected challenge from a diverse set of opponents, including black pastors and Hasidic leaders. They say a prohibition would fly in the face of centuries of religious and cultural tradition.

"Black ministers have staged protests, saying that for many African-Americans, wearing furs is a treasured hallmark of achievement. Hasidic rabbis point to the many men who wear fur hats on the Sabbath. And fur shop owners and garment manufacturers have raised alarms over the potential loss of jobs and an attack on an industry with a deep history in New York
...
"The bill being considered by the Council would ban the sale of fur garments and accessories, but it would allow the sale of used fur garments and new apparel using fur from older garments. Violators would be subject to fines of $500 to $1,500, and any money made from selling banned fur would be subject to forfeiture. The bill would not ban wearing fur.

"Los Angeles is the largest city in the country to have banned the sale of fur; other cities include San Francisco and West Hollywood. But New York City is the largest fur retail market in the United States, according to FurNYC, a trade group representing 130 fur retailers in the city. The 150 fur businesses in the city create 1,100 jobs and produce $400 million in revenue per year, according to the group."

Xenotransplants, Baby Fae, and the complex pioneering efforts of Dr. Leonard Bailey, RIP

The recent death of Dr. Leonard Bailey (who performed the first successful heart transplant to an infant) reminded me of how so many ultimately successful stories in organ transplantation begin with rather wild shots in the dark, involving patients who have little to lose.

Here's the NY Times obituary:

Dr. Leonard Bailey, Who Gave a Baby a Baboon’s Heart, Dies at 76
By Denise Grady, May 22, 2019

"Dr. Leonard L. Bailey, who elicited both admiration and outrage by transplanting the heart of a baboon into a dying infant in 1984, died on May 12 at his home in Redlands, Calif. He was 76.
...
"Although Dr. Bailey went on to pioneer human heart transplants for infants, and to build a renowned center for children’s cardiac surgery at Loma Linda University in Southern California, he remained best known to the public as the doctor behind the wrenching story of the infant known as Baby Fae.

...
"“I knew she was going to die, and I had to try,” Ms. Beauclair [Baby Fae's mom] said in a telephone interview. “If I hadn’t tried, I always would have wondered, could we have saved her?
...
"The operation took place on Oct. 26, 1984. At first, Stephanie seemed to thrive. During a news conference at the hospital, Dr. Bailey was ebullient, describing her as a “beautiful, healthy baby” whose transplanted heart was doing “everything it should.”

"Baby Fae made headlines around the world. The public was enchanted by her. But reactions to the surgery ranged from awe to horror.
...
"Animal rights groups said killing the baboon was immoral and held demonstrations outside the hospital and Dr. Bailey’s home. He and the hospital received threats.

“This wasn’t a wild whim,” Dr. Roger Hadley, dean of Loma Linda University School of Medicine, said in an interview. “He had worked for years on doing cross-species transplants in animals. We had a whole lab of animals who had somebody else’s heart.”

"Dr. Hadley added that the hospital at Loma Linda is faith-based — the hospital and the university are run by the Seventh-day Adventist Church — and said that all its ethicists and theologians had thought that the transplant was the right thing to do.

“We stood by him here,” he said.
...
"Stephanie’s initial rally after the surgery did not last. Rejection and organ failure set in, and she died on Nov. 15, 1984. She had survived for 21 days.

"Her case helped focus concern on the plight of babies born with fatal heart defects, and the desperate need for organs. The next year, Dr. Bailey performed the first successful heart transplant in an infant, from a human donor. He went on to perform 375 more over the course of his career, as well as other types of pediatric heart surgery. He continued operating until 2017.

"Because of growing ethical concerns about experimenting on primates, research on using them as a source of organ transplants has mostly been abandoned. But efforts are underway to genetically alter pigs to make their organs compatible with humans."

Alumni medals at Columbia

I am a proud grad of the Columbia University School of Engineering, which I attended as an undergraduate from 1968-1971.  I'll be back on campus this evening to get a medal, as will Dr. Harry L. Tuller.

You can read about us in the Columbia Engineering Magazine: Alumni Medalists 

Black markets in college graduation tickets

Here's a seasonal story, from the Guardian;

Need a college graduation ticket? There's a black market for that
Tickets for New York University’s 2019 commencement ceremony are being advertised for as much as $250

"It’s graduation season in the United States, which means lots of caps, gowns, pomp and circumstance, corny speeches, selfies – and an underground trade in graduation tickets to top off the celebrations.

"Many colleges and universities limit the number of people who can attend a graduation ceremony, providing students with tickets to the event they can distribute to friends and family. These tickets are often transferable, meaning someone can give a ticket to a friend who needs an extra seat. But this also means that students can sell their tickets – though banned by most schools – to get some extra cash.

"This “black market” around graduation has been documented for years, especially with the rise of social media networks. People from schools like Princeton, University of San Francisco and College of Charleston have advertised tickets for hundreds of dollars, the Wall Street Journal reported in 2007. At the University of Virginia, students sold tickets for an average price of $150 for last year’s commencement ceremony in Charlottesville.

"Now at New York University (NYU), tickets for the class of 2019’s commencement ceremony are being advertised for as much as $250."

Surrogacy and citizenship: bringing the babies home isn't always so easy

Even the U.S., which is a center of surrogacy, employs outdated rules to determine which surrogate children born overseas are automatically American citizens.  Here's a story from the NY Times which (among other things) involves reverse fertility tourism. The American male couple had a friend in Britain serve as the surrogate. (Mostly the tourism goes the other way, because British surrogates can't be paid, so they aren't easy to arrange....)

Both Parents Are American. The U.S. Says Their Baby Isn’t. By Sarah Mervosh.

"James Derek Mize is an American citizen, born and raised in the United States. His husband, who was born in Britain to an American mother, is a United States citizen, too.

"But the couple’s infant daughter isn’t, according to the State Department.

"She was born abroad to a surrogate, using a donor egg and sperm from her British-born father. Those distinct circumstances mean that, under a decades-old policy, she did not qualify for citizenship at birth, even though both her parents are American.
...
"The interpretation [of the law] has led the State Department to regard births from assisted reproductive technology as “out of wedlock,” if the source of the sperm and the egg do not match married parents. Such a designation comes with extra requirements for transmitting citizenship, including showing that a biological parent is an American citizen who has spent at least five years in the United States."