Notes from Prague (kidney exchange, market design, and progress on a new book)

I flew back to California yesterday, after spending some time in Czechia and Italy talking about kidney exchange.  Here is a video of the public talk I gave at Prague Castle.  Among other things it highlights the Czech kidney exchanges with Israel. (I had the pleasure of meeting  Prof. Jiri Fronek, the distinguished surgical pioneer who led the Czech side of that effort.)

https://youtu.be/jrrlNWMkQyE?feature=shared

I also had the privilege of visiting CERGE-EI  (Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute) where my host was Prof  Štěpán Jurajda.  He and I first met when we were both at the University of Pittsburgh in the 1990s.

And here's an interview with the Economic newspaper  Hospodářské noviny  that starts off with the optimistic notion that I may have just (largely) completed the draft of a new book:)

Zkoumá trhy, kde peníze nevládnou. Ledvinu ani lásku si za ně většinou nekoupíte, říká nobelista Alvin Roth [ He explores markets where money doesn't rule. You can't usually buy a kidney or love with it, says Nobel laureate Alvin Roth]

“Before flying from the USA to Prague, economist and Nobel laureate Alvin Roth managed to send the publisher a draft of his new book, which he is currently finishing. He calls it Controversial Markets. Between an afternoon lecture for students at the CERGE-EI Institute in Prague and an evening lecture at Prague Castle, he also found time for an interview with Hospodářské noviny, in which he outlines what his new book will be about. One of the controversial markets he deals with, for example, is the organ transplant market."