Sports, ethnicity, and the urban geography of basketball

 I'm just back from an unexpectedly grueling trip, and hope to resume semi-daily blogging.  This story caught my eye: basketball has been an inner city game in the U.S., in part because basketball courts can be set up very inexpensively in urban parks, and not so expensively in gyms.  So inner city kids are disproportionately represented among the most talented players.  But who those kids are has changed over time.

The WSJ has the story: 

When Jews Ruled the Basketball Court.  Six players on the New York Knicks’ inaugural roster were Jewish.  By Michael Freund 

 "It was Nov. 1, 1946, and Ossie Schectman of the New York Knicks took a bounce pass and scored on a two-handed underhand layup. Schectman, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, had just scored the first basket in NBA history.

...

"Six members of the Knicks’ original roster, including Schectman, were Jewish. That was no coincidence. For much of the early 20th century, basketball was widely regarded as a Jewish game.

"The reason can be traced to the immigrant neighborhoods of New York and Philadelphia. Millions of Jews arrived from Eastern Europe beginning in the 1880s, often settling in neighborhoods with little open space and scant money to spend on recreation. Baseball required a field and equipment. Basketball needed little more than a ball, a hoop and a schoolyard. "

Brocher conference on boundaries for incentives in organ donation Oct 27-29 in Geneva

 I'm on my way to the Brocher Foundation, near Geneva, for a conference organized by Swisstransplant (SWT) and the Declaration of Istanbul Custodian Group (DICG), on

 Constructive dialogue interrogating boundaries for incentives in organ donation  

"The shortage of organs available for transplantation poses a major challenge to healthcare systems. Some proposals aim to introduce incentives to encourage organ donation. This workshop examines the ethical implications of these strategies and discusses acceptable limits for promoting donation while respecting human dignity." 

Economics competition for high school and middle school students in Italy

Yesterday,  Tito Boeri, David Card and I attended the  award ceremony of the EconoMia and EcoQuiz competitions for high school and middle school students in Italy.

 At the Intesa Sanpaolo skyscraper, the award ceremony of the EconoMia and EcoQuiz competitions, as part of the International Festival of Economics. 

Here we are with the high school students whose essays received awards. 

 

 

WHO GETS TO CHOOSE? LIFE, FREEDOM, AND MORAL BOUNDARIES, a discussion with Marco Cappato, today at Collegio Carlo Alberto

I'm excited that I will get to discuss Moral Economics and controversial markets today with Marco Cappato, who has played such a large role in dealing with controversies involving medical aid in dying and reproductive rights.

CHI DECIDE? VITA, LIBERTÀ E CONFINI MORALI

WHO GETS TO CHOOSE? LIFE, FREEDOM, AND MORAL BOUNDARIES
sabato 24 ottobre
17:00 - 18:00
Centro Città
Collegio Carlo Alberto | Auditorium
Piazza Vincenzo Arbarello, 8, Torino

With

MARCO CAPPATO, ALVIN ROTH

Moderates

CATERINA SOFFICI

Live translation available

Quando le scelte riguardano il corpo, la vita e la morte, dove finisce la libertà individuale e dove deve iniziare la regolazione pubblica? Cosa dovrebbero fare le società quando le convinzioni morali divergono profondamente? Come possono le istituzioni proteggere la libertà di scelta senza lasciare indifesi i più vulnerabili?

 
When choices involve the body, life, and death, where should individual freedom end and public regulation begin? What should societies do when moral convictions sharply diverge? How can institutions protect freedom of choice without leaving the most vulnerable unprotected? 

"I'm more worried about democracy than artificial intelligence": Italian press on Moral Economics in advance of the International Festival of Economics

In the run-up to the  International Festival of Economics in Turin starting today, Vanity Fair in Italy publishes an interview with me under this headline:

Alvin Roth: «Sono più preoccupato per la democrazia che per l’intelligenza artificiale»

 "I'm more worried about democracy than artificial intelligence" 

 

The Festival itself publishes this article:

ROTH E LA SFIDA DEI MERCATI RIPUGNANTI  ROTH AND THE CHALLENGE OF REPULSIVE MARKETS 

 

And here's an essay I sent in English, translated into Italian, which you can translate back pretty well:)

Eco­no­mia in cerca di morale
Esi­stono mer­cati con­tro­versi (alcol, gioco d’azzardo, utero in affitto...) su cui i vari Paesi hanno posi­zioni diverse, riflette il Nobel Alvin E. Roth: non sem­pre si arri­verà al con­senso col­let­tivo, ma è lecito esplo­rare com­pro­messi La Lettura
Di ALVIN E. ROTH (tra­du­zione di Rita Bal­das­sarre)

Economy in search of morale
There are controversial markets (alcohol, gambling, surrogacy...) on which the various countries have different positions, reflects the Nobel Prize winner Alvin E. Roth: collective consensus will not always be reached, but it is legitimate to explore compromises 

Market design and water conservation in the the Great Salt Lake

Silvia Console Battilana, who co-founded Auctionomics along with Paul Milgrom, writes in Forbes about the prospects for market design efforts to help conserve Utah's Great Salt Lake. 

How Market Design Could Help Save Utah’s Great Salt Lake by 
By Silvia Console Battilana

 "the Great Salt Lake is drying up.

"To save the lake while protecting water users, business leaders can adopt a little-known but powerful economic tool: market design. When water levels drop, the consequences immediately hit commercial supply chains and local commerce. Market-based incentives give businesses a way to reward upstream water conservation, bringing more water to the lake without hurting regional growth. The invisible hand of the market could identify the least expensive conservation, compensate participating water users and restore the Great Salt Lake.

...

"The shrinking of the Great Salt Lake has many causes, and there is no silver-bullet fix. But any solution to refill the lake will likely involve conservation within Utah. Seventy-one percent of the water diverted from the lake’s basin is allocated to agriculture. If those commercial users could make more efficient use of water, more would reach the lake.

The catch is that many conservation practices, like water-friendly infrastructure and precision irrigation, are expensive. Under Utah’s traditional “use-it-or-lose-it” water rights system, users have little financial reason to conserve. Without modern economic incentives, asking businesses and farms to voluntarily cut back simply isn’t realistic.

Even if water users could be forced to cut back, it’s not clear who should cut back, or by how much. The costs of water conservation aren’t the same across users, and they can be very hard to estimate.

Market design can address both of these challenges. Crucially, markets don’t force particular actions or behaviors. Instead, well-designed markets create an incentive for farms and communities to cut back on water and be rewarded for their efforts. Anyone who can cost-effectively reduce consumption will do so, while others aren’t compelled to conserve if it would be too expensive.

Market Design Works
Even when the stakes are high and a lot stands in the way, intentionally designed markets can successfully align self-interest with the public good.

Further, market design can be used to align incentives even when money isn’t exchanged: it has been used for organ donation exchanges and food banks. Harnessing the invisible hand of the market to align incentives in pursuit of a common goal is an effective tool for difficult problems."

 

 

The International Festival of Economics, in Turin, October 22-25

 The International Festival of Economics will take place in Turin from 22 to 25 October 2026.  I hope to be there to participate in all but the first day. (I'll be speaking on Saturday.)

 The International Festival of Economics 2026

"Following the success of its first four editions, respectively dedicated to The New Generations of the World (2025), Who Owns Knowledge (2024), Rethinking Globalization (2023), and Merit, Diversity and Social Justice (2022), the Festival will return from October 22 to 25 in some of the most beautiful venues in the center of the Piedmontese capital with a new edition titled Saving the Welfare State. In Turin, some of the most authoritative economists and international experts working at the forefront of research on this topic will meet, together with scholars from many other disciplines.

The International Festival of Economics is curated by Editori Laterza and Collegio Carlo Alberto - Torino Local Committee (TOLC) under the scientific direction of Tito Boeri. The event is promoted by the TOLC, which brings together the Piedmont Region, the City of Turin, Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, Fondazione CRT, the University of Turin, the Polytechnic University of Turin, the Turin Chamber of Commerce, Unioncamere Piemonte, Unione Industriali Torino, and Legacoop, coordinated by the Fondazione Collegio Carlo Alberto.

Collegio Carlo Alberto will be one of the festival's venues, hosting 29 events.

Visit the Festival Website"