Repugnance watch: Texas is different

Time Magazine has the story:

"Two Texas mothers set off a firestorm recently when they complained that a male assistant principal had severely paddled their daughters. One of the mothers pointed out that school policy required that officials of the same sex as the student do the paddling. Now the school board has responded — by dropping the rule requiring paddlers and students to be of the same sex. 

A wife-carrying championship dynasty

We have a new championship pair in the World Wife Carrying Championships in Finland, and they are the old champions. (I like wife carrying because it's similar enough to dwarf tossing to raise the question about why one is widely repugnant and the other is not...).

Wife carrying championships in Finland won for fourth time by couple

There's a video at the link...

Privacy of auction bids

Steve Leider writes:

I came on an interesting market design anecdote in a larger article about cryptography (http://arstechnica.com/security/2012/09/quantum-cryptography-yesterday-today-and-tomorrow/5/), and I found out more details here (http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/trading-sugar-beet-quotas-secure-multiparty-computation-in-practice)

The basic story is that all the production of sugar beets in Denmark get sold to a monopsonist firm Danisco, and at the start of the year each farmer buys rights to sell a certain quantity of beets to Danisco at harvest, based on their production estimates.  Often when harvest comes farmers end up wanting to buy or sell rights, however in the past this has been difficult to do in a centralized fashion because a double auction for rights would reveal too much information to Danisco and enhance its bargaining power versus the farmer's association.  Recently they instituted a system where they could essentially submit their bids in encrypted form to an algorithm that can compute the market clearing price and exchanges without needing to decrypt individual bids.

Steve

School choice in the news again in Boston

There are two things underlying school choice debates around the country:

1. In most big cities there aren't enough good schools for all children

2. People who live near good schools support a policy of sending children to local schools, and people who don't live near good schools support policies that allow children and their families to choose to go to more distant schools.

Here's the NY Times on the current debate in Boston, which mostly seems to involve limiting the scope of school choice to geographically smaller districts: 4 Decades After Clashes, Boston Again Debates School Busing

and here's the Harvard Gazette: Joel Klein speaks at Harvard Graduate School of Education

“The facts are pretty gruesome,” said Klein..."
**********

Links to the proposals are contained in this earlier post.

Incentives for blood donation (and seminar by Bob Slonim today at Stanford)

Bob Slonim is visiting at Stanford this quarter, and will be giving a seminar today: here's the announcement.

Mon, Oct 8, 3:30PM - 5:00PM

Bob Slonim Sydney (visiting Stanford)

Blood Donation Registry: A lab and natural field experiment

GSB E-103

There's no paper to link to yet...
****************

Over at MR, Alex Tabarrok wrote a little while ago about the earlier work of Bob and his colleagues on blood donation:

"Mario Macis, Nicola Lacetera, and Bob Slonim, the authors of the most important work on this subject (references below), write to me with the details:

The decision to donate blood involves complex motivations including altruism, civic duty and moral responsibility. As a result, we agree with Buttonwood that in theory incentives could reduce the supply of blood. In fact, this claim is often advanced in the popular press as well as in academic publications, and as a consequence, more and more often it is taken for granted.

But what is the effect of incentives when studied in the real world with real donors andactual blood donations?

We are unaware of a single study of real blood donations that shows that offering an incentive reduces the overall quantity or quality of blood donations. From our two studies, both in the United States covering several hundred thousand people, and studies by Goette and Stutzer (Switzerland) and Lacetera and Macis (Italy), a total of 17 distinct incentive items have been studied for the effects on actual blood donations. Incentives have included both small items and gift cards as well as larger items such as jackets and a paid-day off of work.  In 16 of the 17 items examined, blood donations significantly increased (and there was no effect for the one other item), and in 16 of the 17 items studied no significant increase in deferrals or disqualifications were found.  No study has ever looked at paying cash for actual blood donations, but several of the 17 items in the above studies involve gift cards with clear monetary value.

...

Goette, L., and Stutzer, A., 2011: “Blood Donation and Incentives: Evidence from a Field Experiment,” Working Paper.

Lacetera, N., and Macis, M. 2012. Time for Blood: The Effect of Paid Leave Legislation on Altruistic Behavior. Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, forthcoming.

Lacetera N, Macis M, Slonim R 2012 Will there be Blood? Incentives and Displacement Effects in Pro-Social Behavior. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 4: 186-223.

Lacetera N, Macis M, Slonim R.: Rewarding Altruism: A natural Field Experiment, NBER working paper.

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

Dual career academic couples--some thoughts on negotiations

A dean shares some thoughts on the negotiations and some of the obstacles that face dual career couples, and particularly the second member of the couple to be hired:

Dual-Career Academics: The Right Start

July 27, 2012 - 3:00am

By

Elizabeth H. Simmons

"A typical hire is something that a department has prepared for at length and according to a familiar rhythm: asking to search, reading folders and conducting multiple campus interviews.  By the time an offer is tendered, department members have had numerous opportunities to review the new hire’s credentials, hear the person give a talk, and even speak one-on-one.   In contrast, a partner’s hire is often conducted more rapidly and with fewer opportunities for interaction with department members. 

"In consequence, when the second partner starts his or her job, there may be fewer members of the department than usual who are aware that the hire has happened, let alone who are aware of academic interests they may have in common."

The online market for tailors

One of the markets that the internet seems likely to change profoundly is the market for custom clothing. Bloomberg news had a recent report on what looks like it could be a small beginning of a big thing:

"Custom clothing startups J. Hilburn Inc., American Giant andBonobos Inc. are racing to gain share in a U.S. e-commerce market that Forrester Research Inc. estimates will reach $327 billion in 2016, up from $202 billion last year. They’ve won customers and venture backers by cutting stores from the supply chain to ship straight to consumers from the factory, charging lower prices than department stores and eking out higher margins than Amazon.com Inc. , the biggest Web retailer.

“J. Hilburn will sell shirts that are made out of the same fabric mill in Italy that a Zegna would sell at Neiman Marcus for $300,” said Brian O’Malley, a partner at Battery Ventures, an investor in the startup, which has raised a total of about $12 million. “They can sell that same shirt totally custom-made for the customer for less, and do that still with healthy margins because there are a lot less middlemen along the way who need to get paid.”

Literary agents as matchmakers

Their secret, says Michael Bourne, is to try not to spend much time on work that they don't think they can sell...“A Right Fit”: Navigating the World of Literary Agents

"Mainstream publishing is a Rube Goldberg machine of perverse economic incentives, in which large numbers of mostly idiotic self-help guides, diet books, and airport thrillers subsidize an ever-shrinking number of mostly money-losing literary novels and books of poetry. But just because publishing operates on a crazy economic model doesn’t mean it doesn’t make sense. There is a market, however tiny, for good books, and there are a small number of smart, hard-working people who live for the thrill of finding a talented author. If you are one of those talented authors, then it is your job to stop whining and figure out how to make it easy for them to find you."

School choice in Tel Aviv takes friendships into account

From the paper:

The Friends Factor: How Students’ Social Networks Affect Their Academic Achievement and Well-Being?, September 2012, by Victor Lavy and Edith Sand.


Abstract
"In this paper, we estimate the influence of social relationships on educational attainment and social outcomes of students in school. More specifically, we investigate how losing different types of social relationships during the transition from elementary to middle school affect students' academic progress and general well-being. We use social relationships identified by the students themselves in elementary school, as part of a unique aspect of the Tel Aviv school application process which allows sixth-grade students to designate their middle schools of choice and to list up to eight friends with whom they wish to attend that school. The lists create natural “friendship hierarchies” that we exploit in our analysis. We designate the three categories of requited and unrequited friendships that stem from these lists as follows: (1) reciprocal friends (students who list one another); and for those whose friendship requests did not match: (2) followers (those who listed fellow students as friends but were not listed as friends by these same fellow students) and (3) non-reciprocal friends (parallel to followers). Following students from elementary to middle school enables us to overcome potential selection bias by using pupil fixed-effect methodology. Our results suggest that the presence of reciprocal friends and followers in class has a positive and significant effect on test scores in English, math, and Hebrew. However, the number of friends in the social network beyond the first circle of reciprocal friends has no effect at all on students. In addition, the presence of non-reciprocal friends in class has a negative effect on a student’s learning outcomes. We find that these effects have interesting patterns of heterogeneity by gender, ability, and age of students. In addition, we find that these various types of friendships have positive effects on other measures of well-being, including social and overall happiness in school, time allocated for homework, and whether one exhibits violent behavior."

The paper uses the submitted friendship links, and the outcome of the school matching process, but doesn't give any indication of how the school choice process attempts to take into account the friendship links...




HT: László Sándor

Free-will marriages in Pakistan

Marriage is a tough matching problem under any circumstances, but women who wish to choose their own spouse in Pakistan may face special problems, although progress is being made: Defying Parents, Some Pakistani Women Risk All to Marry Whom They Choose

"Though some form of arranged marriage remains the most common way for Pakistanis to find spouses, marriage without the consent of a woman’s guardian was legalized in 2003. The change in the law has created a larger opening for many women to claim their independence, using the courts and the local news media.
...
"The tactics have given more visibility to a problem long considered largely a private matter.

“Things are changing; the girls are becoming bolder, they are continuously taking steps, and they are not afraid to die,” said Mahnaz Rahman, resident director of the Aurat Foundation, a women’s rights organization active throughout Pakistan. “They know that they will be killed, but even then they are taking these steps because they can’t conform to the values of their parents. They are the girls of this modern age.”

"When a woman disagrees with her parents’ choice of husband, she has few options, Ms. Rahman said. If she wants to marry someone else, the two must elope and leave the family home behind. By leaving the home, though, the daughter is considered to have dishonored her family, and that is where culture, custom and the legal system intersect with retribution.

"Parents frequently press kidnapping charges to regain control of a renegade daughter. Such cases can engulf entire families, as the police will often seize property and detain relatives of the accused man."

New zones in Boston Public School choice

Boston's school choice system is presently organized intro districts, and parents can submit preferences for schools in their district (which are the processed in a deferred acceptance algorithm).

There have been concerns about transportation costs and times, and several new proposals are now under consideration, ranging from local schools to increasing the number of school districts, so that each one is smaller. (Here's the BPS page on the proposals and the public discussions that will now take place.)

Changing back to 100% local schools determined by home address would of course remove the need for any algorithm to process preferences. However all the other proposals will continue to need a school choice algorithm. As far as I know, there isn't any discussion about changing the algorithm, it's all about re-defining the choice sets.

Proposed revisions to deceased donor kidney allocation policy

Here's an announcement about the newly proposed revision of the deceased donor kidney allocation policy (at the end of the post I have an emailed explanation from the committee chair John Friedewald.

Public comment sought on proposed revisions to deceased donor kidney allocation policy

Release Date: 09/21/2012 Printer Friendly Public comment sought on proposed revisions to deceased donor kidney allocation policy Richmond, Va. - The OPTN/UNOS Kidney Transplantation Committee is seeking public comment regarding substantial proposed amendments to OPTN deceased donor kidney allocation policy. The proposed policy would maintain access to kidney transplantation for all candidates while seeking to improve outcomes for kidney transplant recipients, increase the years recipients may have a functioning transplant and increase utilization of available kidneys. Matching to increase benefit and utilizationMore than 93,000 people are currently listed for kidney transplantation nationwide. About 10 percent of those candidates die each year while waiting. Because there are not enough kidneys donated to meet the need, it is important to improve benefit by matching recipients according to the potential function of the kidney and ensure as many kidneys as possible are transplanted. The proposed policy includes new factors not used in the current policy. Their use is recommended to enhance survival benefit and use of available kidneys. Kidney Donor Profile Index (KDPI)The proposed policy would replace the existing policy definitions of "standard criteria" and "expanded criteria" donors with the Kidney Donor Profile Index (KDPI). KDPI is a clinical formula to classify kidney offers based upon the length of time they are likely to continue to function once transplanted. This index is already in use as a resource for transplant professionals to evaluate kidney offers made under the current policy. Estimated Post-transplant Survival (EPTS)The proposed policy would separately employ a clinical formula to estimate the number of years each specific candidate on the waiting list would be likely to benefit from a kidney transplant. This score is called the Estimated Post-transplant Survival formula (EPTS). For more information about KDPI, EPTS and current policy definitions of "standard" and "expanded criteria" donors, read the frequently asked questions (FAQ) document. KDPI and EPTS matching Under the proposed policy, KDPI and EPTS would be combined so that the 20 percent of kidney offers with the longest estimated function determined by the KDPI would first be considered for the 20 percent of candidates estimated by the EPTS to have the longest time to benefit from a transplant. This policy revision is expected to create significant benefit in terms of overall "life-years" (time that recipients retain kidney function after the transplant). This improvement in utilization of the limited number of donated deceased kidneys may reduce recipients' future need for repeat transplants, thus allowing more transplants among candidates awaiting their first opportunity. For the remaining 80 percent of transplant candidates, the organ offer process would be much the same as the existing system unless they receive additional priority based on other considerations addressed below. Promoting greater utilizationThe 15 percent of kidney offers estimated to have the shortest potential length of function based on KDPI score would be offered on a wider geographic basis. Similar to the use of currently defined "expanded criteria donor" kidneys, these offers may be considered for candidates who would have a better life expectancy with a timely transplant than they would remaining on dialysis. This feature is expected to increase utilization of donated kidneys currently available for transplant. It may also help minimize differences in local transplant waiting times across different regions of the country. ... Providing comment/process for further consideration The full proposal is available on the OPTN website. Anyone who has an interest may submit comments or questions on this or other current proposals *********** And below is an email from the committee chair, John Friedewald in reply to a query on a list-serve (reproduced here with his permission). "The current proposal for kidney allocation from the UNOS kidney committee is what it is not because it was the first thing we thought of, and “wow, it’s perfect” but rather it is the product of 8 years of trial and error, consensus building, and compromise.  To state that EOFI takes into account both equity and efficiency would seem to suggest that the current UNOS proposal does not.  How could this be?  We have tried over 50 different methods of allocation and simulated them (which has not happened yet with EOFI).  And with each simulation, we view the results and how the system affects all sorts of different groups (NOT just age, but blood type, ethnic groups, sensitized patients, the effects on organ shipping, the effects on real efficiency in the system (the actual logistics).  And we have seen that some methods of allocation can generate massive utility (or efficiency in your terminology).  We can get thousands of extra life years out of the current supply of organs.  But in each instance, we have made concessions in the name of equity.  The current proposal does not increase or decrease organs to any age group by more than 5% (compared to current).   This has been our compromise on equity.  What we see in utility/efficiency is an extra 8000+ years lived each year with the current supply of organs.  So the current policy has done a tremendous amount to balance equity and utility.  And we have left thousands of life years lived on the table in the name of equity.  Now you may argue that we have not done enough in that regard, but rest assured, we have given equity hundreds of hours of consideration. "In terms of the possible changes to living donor kidney transplant rates, we have to understand why there is concern.  The current “Share 35” plan prioritizes kidneys from donors under age 35 to pediatric candidates.  Because there are so few pediatric candidates in any area, they tend to have very short waiting times compared to adult candidates (months vs. years).  And so, when faced with the decision, a pediatric candidate can be fairly sure to get a high quality deceased donor kidney in a relatively short period of time.  So why take a kidney away from a living donor?  And so the argument goes.  Pediatric candidates will maintain their priority in the new system.  And in fact, may have even better organs, because Share 35 will now relate to KPDI rather than donor age alone, a better marker of kidney longevity (some kidneys from donors under 35 aren’t that great, but KPDI tends to look at more factors than just age and really get to kidney quality).  So I would expect that many pediatric candidates will still take a kidney from a deceased donor rather than a living donor.  The living donor kidneys would still often be predicted to last them longer, but there is the issue of the risk to the living donor to consider in that difficult equation. With adults, it will be quite different.  The new proposal would prioritize kidneys from donors with a KDPI < 20 (the “longest lasting” 20% of organs) to candidates with the 20% longest estimated post-transplant survival (EPTS).  This is done primarily to avoid extreme mismatches in donor and recipient longevity.  Why 20%?  There are several reasons.  First, the equations we use to predict EPTS are not perfect (nor could they ever be).  But it turns out, the EPTS prediction is much better at the tails than it is in the middle.  So we are pretty good at picking out the ones at the far left of the curve.  And 20% was chosen because the EPTS curve changes slope around that point.  And 20% is a round number (we could have chosen 17% or 23%, but that would even confuse people more – and we have heard over and over, “it can’t be confusing”.  The EPTS calculation was made simpler in response to public feedback.).  So the concern that I have heard is that if you are a candidate in the top 20% EPTS, then you will get a great kidney right away, and why would you take a living donor kidney? Just like the kids.  But the important difference here is in the numbers.  Given 92,000 patients on the wait list, there will be about 18,400 candidates in the “top 20%” EPTS group.  Now they will have priority (after multi-organ, after pediatrics, after zero mismatches, after previous live donors) for those organs, but remember, we only perform 11,500 or so transplant a year.  So the top 20% would be 2300 organs a year (assuming there are no pediatric, multi-organ transplants done).  So it is likely that candidates in the top 20 might wait years (longer than candidates in the bottom 80 EPTS would wait for a kidney in fact) for a top 20% kidney.  That is why top 20 EPTS candidates are eligible for all kidneys, because in practice, many of them will accept an offer from a donor with KDPI > 20%.  And guess what?  They have to wait JUST AS LONG for those as every other candidate.  So we are not really advantaging that top 20% group as much as people might think.  But we are trying to keep those really long lived organs for those who stand to benefit from them a long time.  And by doing that, we can realize all those extra life years lived.  And possibly decrease returns to the waitlist (which benefits all candidates indirectly).  We think that has to be worth some tradeoffs.  We have given careful thought and consideration to those issues. "Thanks for listening (reading), and we really appreciate all the interest in the proposal.  I just want to make sure we are all talking about the same set of facts. John Friedewald.

Kidney exchange in Europe

The Spanish transplant organization is attempting to collaborate with other European nations to create a bigger pool--a thicker marketplace--for kidney exchange.

España, Italia y Francia estudian hacer trasplantes en cadenaHay más de 162 parejas dispuestas para un trasplante renal cruzado | En junio se llevó a cabo el primer trasplante en cadena intercontinental

or, via Google translate:

Spain, Italy and France to study transplant chain There are more than 162 couples willing to cross a kidney transplant | In June he held the Intercontinental chain first transplant.

" At this time, according to data provided by this organization, there are 72 couples willing to cross a kidney transplant, while in France there are another 70 and Italy 20. ...
"The closing of this agreement would open the door to cross-border donation and transplantation in Europe (Spain had isolated interventions in Portugal) .
...
" Last June, the Alliance of Paired Donation agency reported the completion of the first transplant in U.S. international chain, incorporating two Greek citizens."
*****

On the APD exchange between Greece and the U.S., see previous post here.

HT: Flip Klijn

An unusual non-directed kidney donor

A recent kidney exchange NEAD chain (NEAD = non-simultaneous extended altruistic donor) began with quite an unusual altruistic donor. Apparently she first got the idea of donating one of her kidneys when she was just 8 years old. Here's the story:
Paying it forward: Oklahoma woman's kidney donation continues to help others.  Ever since she was a child, Liz Gay wanted to donate her kidney. At 31, she donated her kidney and made medical history. 

"It's not easy to explain now, but at 8 years old, Liz Gay knew that she would one day donate a kidney.
Not just knew — felt called by God.
...
"Gay is what's known as an altruistic donor, a healthy person who donated a kidney without a specific person in mind as the recipient. To start the donation process, Gay went to the Alliance for Paired Donation and signed up to donate.

"Once she passed through the screening and testing process, a recipient was selected, a man living across the Atlantic Ocean.

"Michalis Helmis, a resident of Greece, had been on dialysis for six years. Initially, his wife, Theodora Papaioannou-Helmis, signed up to be his donor. But when doctors ran the tests, they determined she wasn't a match.

"Theodora Papaioannou-Helmis spent the next two years lobbying Greek politicians to change the country's law restricting organ donation.

“The only reason I did that is I believed he could not be on dialysis for his whole life,” she said through a translator. “I just couldn't accept that, and I had to do it to get him well.”

"Under Greek law, only spouses and first-degree relatives could donate kidneys to other family members. Once the law was modified, the couple flew to Ohio.

"The agreement was that Gay's kidney would go to Michalis Helmis, and a few months later, Theodora Papaioannou-Helmis would come back to the states and donate her kidney to a man in Pennsylvania.

"Everything worked out as planned, and a few months later, Michalis Helmis feels healthier than he has in years. He still can't believe Gay's generosity."
******************

That was, I think, the very first intercontinental exchange. I blogged earlier about it here:
Mike Rees and Greece: an intercontinental kidney exchange

The story about the Oklahoma donor includes a great line about Mike Rees:
"Dr. Michael Rees, the Alliance for Paired Donation chief executive officer, describes himself as “probably the biggest advocate of paired kidney donation.” 

"Incentive" spectrum auctions take another step forward

The NY Times reports on today's events in Washington: F.C.C. Backs Proposal to Realign Airwaves

"WASHINGTON — The government took a big step on Friday to aid the creation of new high-speed wireless Internet networks that could fuel the development of the next generation of smartphones and tablets, and devices that haven’t even been thought of yet.

"The five-member Federal Communications Commission unanimously approved a sweeping, though preliminary, proposal to reclaim public airwaves now used for broadcast television and auction them off for use in wireless broadband networks, with a portion of the proceeds paid to the broadcasters.

"The initiative, which the F.C.C. said would be the first in which any government would pay to reclaim public airwaves with the intention of selling them, would help satisfy what many industry experts say is booming demand for wireless Internet capacity."
***********
Paul Milgrom is leading an impressive group of auction designers in the novel technical aspects of this effort.

Washington State liquor stores--followup on the auction

As I wrote in March, Washington State auctioned off its state liquor stores in an online auction that  opened March 6, 2012 and closed April 20, using an entirety auction, in which either all the stores would be sold together to one bidder, or each store would be sold separately.  The separate bidders won. However, 18 of them failed to come forward and pay their bids, and so a second re-auction followed, on May 24. (The re-auction of those 18 seems to have been well attended.)

Here are the results of the initial auction (the 18 failed bids wouldn't have changed the outcome...)

By the Numbers
• Total sum of individual bids       $30.75 million
• High all-store bid                      $4.6 million (will not count)
• Registered bidders                    551
• Total number of bids                 14,627
• Single stores to individuals        93
• Multiple stores to individuals     28
• Lowest winning bid                    $49,600 for Store 186 in Spokane (Division street)
• Highest winning bid                   $750,100 for Store 122 in Tacoma (72nd and Pacific)
• Increase in bids on final day      $23.7 million

Like many online auctions, if a bid was placed during the final five minutes of the auction, the end time would automatically extend for an additional five minutes. The official planned end of the auction was 4:00 p.m. PDT. However, heavy bidding activity extended the auction until 6:25 p.m. Friday evening.

The re-auction of the 18 liquor stores brought in an additional $5.9 million.

New Orleans School Choice: bringing one application process to all schools

Progress is being made: New Orleans school officials push holdout charters to join single-application process

"After years of complaints from parents over how complicated it can be to register a student in New Orleans public schools, the city's top education officials have come tantalizingly close to bringing every school within one streamlined enrollment system. A single obstacle remains: persuading a dozen or so independent charter schools -- including four selective magnet schools whose limited seats are especially prized -- to join a common application. It's a turning point that will affect how thousands of pupils go about choosing a school and help shape a first-of-its-kind public education system, potentially knitting back together an enrollment process balkanized by the momentous changes that took place after Hurricane Katrina.

"The charter schools in question are the 12 that fall under theOrleans Parish School Board, the elected body that lost control of most city schools to the state-run Recovery School District after the storm, along with three charter schools in New Orleans -- known as Type 2 charters -- that are authorized by the state board of education and accept students from around the state.

"In a rare joint interview this week, officials with the School Board and the Recovery District said they are deep into conversations with each of those schools about joining the OneApp; all of them are governed by independent charter boards that will make the decision for each school."

Unravelling in college football

There are some big eighth graders out there.

LSU Gives Scholarship Offer To 8th Grader
"It's a scene that plays out on college campuses every single summer, although this offer was different for one main reason -- Dylan Moses has yet to start eighth grade.

"Considering the Tigers are only just starting to hand out offers to members of the Class of 2014, it came as a bit surprise for a 2017 prospect to get one."

And so did the University of Washington

"Washington made a splash in the recruiting world Wednesday, but don't bother checking the ESPN 150 for the newest Huskies commit. He won't be included in that list this year, next year or the one after that.

"It's highly unlikely a single Washington player still will be on the roster by the time Tate Martell makes an appearance in purple and gold, but after receiving a scholarship offer from the Huskies three weeks ago, the soon-to-be eighth-grade quarterback committed to coach Steve Sarkisian on Wednesday, Martell's father, Al, confirmed to ESPN.com.

"The Washington coaching staff is not able to confirm whether it has accepted the commitment from the 14-year-old Martell. Schools are not able to offer a written scholarship until Sept. 1 of a prospect's senior season, according to NCAA rules. Martell won't be able to sign a national letter of intent until Feb. 1, 2017."

HT: Vikram Rao

Law review submissions: too cheap?

It has always been the custom to submit papers to multiple law reviews, but the new ExpressO system makes it so easy that some journals are no longer accepting papers from it. Dan Filler at the Faculty Lounge write: Is Now the Moment to Re-jigger the Law Review Submission Process?

"As I noted here, the University of Chicago Law Review and California Law Review are no longer accepting submissions from ExpressO.  They now accept articles submitted for five dollars a pop via Scholastica.  The Stanford Law Review and Yale Law Journal only accept pieces submitted through their proprietary submission systems.  The anachronistic law review publication system has always been problematic - both because law students with limited knowledge make the big decisions and because, given multiple submissions and an expedite bid system, those student editors are asked to read vastlymore articles than they are ever going to have a shot at publishing. (Of course the two are related; you could never find enough faculty volunteers to referee one article seventy-five times per submission season.  And efforts to create a referee bank - like this - have had limited success.)

I strongly suspect that the volume generated by the low-cost convenience of ExpressO might literally be breaking this camel's back. If ever there was a time to get journals on board for some sort of rationalization, it might be now.  "

Allocating deceased donor kidneys for transplant: problems, some proposed changes, and how can we get more donors?

Two recent NY Times stories discuss the allocation of deceased donor kidneys:

In Discarding of Kidneys, System Reveals Its Flaws

Kidney Transplant Committee Proposes Changes Aimed at Better Use of Donated Organs

A few different things are intertwined here: the long waiting lists, the congested process of offering kidneys and having them accepted or rejected and offered to the next person on the list, and the ordering of the list, which in turn might influence how often people need a second transplant, which comes back to how long the waiting lists are...

There are lots of interesting and important questions about how to most efficiently allocate the scarce supply (see e.g. Zenios et al.)

 But organ allocation has an unusual aspect: how organs are allocated may also influence the supply, by changing donation behavior. I'll be giving a seminar this afternoon on aspects of that question (in joint work with Judd Kessler):

 Mon, Sep 24, 3:30PM - 5:00PM,   Deceased Organ Donation and Allocation: 3 Experiments in Market Design, GSB E-104