The history of economic engineering, and other sessions at the ASSA today that I'll attend or wish I could

At the ASSA meetings this morning, I'll be discussing a session called

Economics and Engineering: Institutions, Practices and Cultures

Paper Session

 Friday, Jan. 4, 2019   8:00 AM - 10:00 AM

 Hilton Atlanta, 405

Hosted By: HISTORY OF ECONOMICS SOCIETY

·       Chair: Pedro Garcia Duarte, University of São Paulo

 

Engineering, Management Science, and American Economics, 1900 – 1940

Thomas Stapleford

,

University of Notre Dame

•  View Abstract

Engineering and Economics at Stanford, 1950-1990

Beatrice Cherrier

,

University of Cergy-Pontoise and CNRS

Aurélien Saïdi

,

Paris Nanterre University and ESCP Europe

•  View Abstract

German Fears in Economic Engineering: An Affective Criticism

Till Duppe

,

University of Québec-Montréal

•  View Abstract

Discussant(s)

Alvin Roth

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I can't yet be sure what I'll say, but in my discussion of engineering and economics at Stanford I'll surely show a photo or two of Bob Wilson, maybe this old one:

Bob Wilson and Al Roth, Stanford IMSSS, 197x

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

Later in the day (after some job-market interviewing) I plan to attend the

AEA/AFA Joint Luncheon

 Friday, Jan. 4, 2019   12:30 PM - 2:15 PM

 Atlanta Marriott Marquis, Imperial Ballroom

Hosted By: American Economic Association & American Finance Association

• Chair: Ben Bernanke, Brookings Institution

• Speaker: Susan Athey, Stanford University: The Impact of Machine Learning on Econometrics and Economics
• ************

Since I haven't figured out how to be in two places at once, I'll miss

Putting the "Ec" in Tech: Economics at Tech Firms

Paper Session

 Friday, Jan. 4, 2019   12:30 PM - 2:15 PM

 Atlanta Marriott Marquis, Marquis Ballroom A

Hosted By: NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR BUSINESS ECONOMICS

• Chair: Carolyn Evans, Intel Corp.

How Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Can Impact Market Design

Paul Milgrom

, 

Stanford University

Steven Tadelis

,

University of California-Berkeley

•  View Abstract
 
•  Download Preview (PDF, 865.75 KB)

Economics at Uber

Jonathan Hall

,

Uber

•  View Abstract

Digital Disintermediation and Efficiency in the Market for Ideas

Christian Peukert

,

Catholic University of Portugal

Imke Reimers

,

Northeastern University

•  View Abstract
 
•  Download Preview (PDF, 895.77 KB)

A Machine Learned, Real Time Measure of the Rate of Inflation

Patrick Bajari

,

University of Washington

Victor Chernozhukov

,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Ramon Huerta

,

University of California-San Diego

Ashish Mishra

,

Amazon

Bernhard Schoelkopf

,

Max Planck Institute

•  View Abstract

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

• Later, if the creeks don't rise, I hope to attend

• Market Design for Online Platforms

  
  

   Friday, Jan. 4, 2019   2:30 PM - 4:30 PM

   Hilton Atlanta, 223
  Hosted By: ECONOMIC SCIENCE ASSOCIATION
  ·       Chair: Yan Chen, University of Michigan

  Toward an Understanding of the Economics of Apologies: Evidence from a Large-scale Natural Field Experiment

  Basil Halperin
  , 
  Uber Technologies Inc
  Benjamin Ho
  , 
  Vassar College
  John A. List
  ,
  University of Chicago, NBER, Uber Technologies Inc.
  Ian Muir
  , 
  Uber Technologies Inc
  ·        View Abstract

  The Design of Feedback Revision Rules - An Experimental Study

  Gary Bolton
  , 
  University of Texas-Dallas
  Kevin Breuer
  , 
  University of Cologne
  Ben Greiner
  , 
  Vienna University of Economics and Business
  Axel Ockenfels
  , 
  University of Cologne
  ·        View Abstract

  Team Competition and Driver Productivity in Ride-sharing: A Natural Field Experiment at Didi

  Wei Ai
  , 
  University of Michigan
  Yan Chen
  , 
  University of Michigan
  Qiaozhu Mei
  , 
  University of Michigan
  Jieping Ye
  , 
  University of Michigan and Didi Chuxing Inc.
  Lingyo Zhang
  , 
  Didi Chuxing Inc.
  ·        View Abstract

  Discussant(s)

  Laura Gee, 
  Tufts University
  Chiara Farronato, 
  Harvard University
  Stephanie Wang, 
  University of Pittsburgh
  Chenyu Yang, 
  University of Rochester
  ***********
• and at 4:45
• Richard T. Ely Lecture Presiding: Ben Bernanke Speaker: David Autor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Topic: Work of the Past, Work of the Future
• 
  
• 
  

Public views of gene editing

Most Americans support gene-editing embryos to prevent diseases, poll shows

"Most Americans say it would be OK to use gene-editing technology to create babies protected against a variety of diseases — but a new poll shows they’d draw the line at changing DNA so children are born smarter, faster or taller.

A month after startling claims of the births of the world’s first gene-edited babies in China, the poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds people are torn between the medical promise of a technology powerful enough to alter human heredity and concerns over whether it will be used ethically.

...

"The AP-NORC poll shows about 7 in 10 Americans favor one day using gene-editing technology to prevent an incurable or fatal disease a child otherwise would inherit, such as cystic fibrosis or Huntington’s disease."

Fertility tourism to the U.S.

The Washington Post suggests that the U.S.A. might be a good place to come if your neighbors at home disapprove of what you hope to do...

From sex selection to surrogates, American IVF clinics provide services outlawed elsewhere

"While many countries have moved in recent years to impose boundaries on assisted reproduction, the U.S. fertility industry remains largely unregulated and routinely offers services outlawed elsewhere. As a result, the United States has emerged as a popular destination for IVF patients from around the world seeking controversial services — not just sex selection, but commercial surrogacy, anonymous sperm donation and screening for physical characteristics such as eye color.
...
"Numerous other countries also are tightening their regulation of the fertility industry. Last year, India banned commercial surrogacy. Next year, Ireland is set to join the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, New Zealand and others in prohibiting anonymous sperm donation. And a large number of countries — including China, Canada and Australia — ban gender selection except in rare cases of medical need.
...
"A survey published in March in the Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics found that nearly 73 percent of U.S. fertility clinics offer gender selection. Of those, nearly 84 percent offer it to couples who do not have fertility problems but are considering IVF solely to control the pregnancy’s outcome."

Economists as heroes (in new German book...)

Iconomix has a review of
Ökonomen sind Superhelden (Economists are superheroes)

"In his book, business journalist Malte Buhse shows how economists and economists hunt down criminals and save lives.
...
"Economists are modern superheroes and do outstanding things:

• Harvard economist Melissa Dell, for example, has used network research to simulate Mexican smuggling drug trafficking routes, giving investigators the most cost-effective transportation routes for drug trafficking. On the routes recommended by the model, the investigators were indeed successful.
• A similar problem was tackled by economists Eliana La Ferrara and Stefano Della Vigna with a completely different approach: to track down illegal arms transports, researchers tracked share price movements of smaller arms manufacturers and combined these data with the course of civil wars in countries such as Angola or Liberia. If the courses turned up after certain events, this aroused the suspicion of arms smuggling. Customs officials used this data to help enforce the arms embargo.
• An economist-superhero who won the Nobel Prize for his work is Alvin Roth. He has designed a market system that can help people with incurable kidney disease get a life-saving transplant. Often there is the problem that the patients find a donor-willing person in the immediate environment, but these are not considered as a donor due to the blood type. The market solution now is that such donor pairs are brought together and the relatives donate the kidney for the stranger - so to speak, crosswise. Thus, life can be saved with simple economic considerations."

The year in passings

Another year has passed, and I noted the passing in 2018 of several economists whose work has been important to market design.

Thursday, August 30, 2018 James Mirrlees 1936-2018

Thursday, August 23, 2018 Martin Shubik, 1926-2018

Wednesday, May 30, 2018 Martine Quinzii, RIP

 It appears that I didn't make such a post last year, and so let's remember also these distinguished economists:

Thursday, May 4, 2017 William J. Baumol (1922-2017)

Monday, April 3, 2017 Julio Rotemberg (1953-2017)

Tuesday, February 21, 2017 Ken Arrow (1921-2017)

Sunday, January 29, 2017 Yuji Ijiri (1935-2017)

Tuesday, January 3, 2017 Tony Atkinson (1944-2017)

I also noted the passing of a giant of transplantation,

Monday, March 6, 2017 Tom Starzl (1926-2017)

and of one of my great teachers when I was in college:

Wednesday, September 19, 2018 Masataka Mori, Sensei (1938-2018)

Rare whiskey: destructive testing

The Guardian breaks the news:
Rare whisky market flooded with fakes, says dealer
Lab tests found 21 out of 55 bottles of allegedly vintage scotch were counterfeit

"Simpson said it was not yet clear what systematic checks would work since the only accurate way of testing a whisky at present was to open the bottle and subject the liquid to chemical testing or the carbon testing techniques used by the Scottish centre.

"However, opening the bottle destroyed its value, making it impossible to prove its provenance while ensuring it could be sold on if it was found to be genuine. It would need the police or food safety authorities to tackle the problem, he said, by tracking a fraudulent bottle to its source."
***********

See earlier, related post. (I wonder if there is insurance against counterfeits?)

Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Insuring your whiskey collection

Notable economics papers from 2018

Quartz posts a list:

Twelve leading economists on the research that shaped our world in 2018

Computational and Experimental Economics in Barcelona: Call for papers

In Barcelona, in February:
Computational and Experimental Economics
Call for papers

"The workshop will run for 2 days and will take place on June 10-11, 2019 in Barcelona. In this two days’ workshop we want to bring together researchers working in two quite separate fields, computational economics and experimental economics"

Keynote Speakers

• Yan Chen (University of Michigan)
• Herbert Dawid (University of Bielefeld)

Workshop organizers

• Jasmina Arifovic (Simon Fraser University)
• Domenico Delli Gatti (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore)
• John Ledyard (Caltech)
• Rosemarie Nagel (ICREA-UPF and Barcelona GSE)

Compensate living donors for lost wages and other expenses?

It seems like an idea whose time should come, and for which there's growing support:

One simple change the government could make to encourage kidney donation
Donors often forgo wages for a couple weeks to save a life. That can be fixed.
By Dylan Matthews

"there’s a group that helps people with the travel costs associated with donating. It’s called the National Living Donor Assistance Center (NLDAC), and it’s funded by the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which administers Medicare. But the group helps a relatively small number of donors.
...
"NLDAC can pay for “travel, lodging, meals, and incidental expenses,” but barring regulation from the HHS, it can’t reimburse lost wages or pay for child care for donors. The group is currently running a randomized controlled trial, funded by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, in a handful of transplant centers where it does reimburse for lost wages to see if offering that increases living donations.

"But NLDAC could adopt that policy nationally, right now, with a simple regulatory change. No action from Congress would be required, according to NLDAC’s own analysis. The HHS can, on its own, issue a rule permitting NLDAC to reimburse lost wages and child care expenses. And randomized trial aside, we already have strong reason to think that reimbursing lost wages would significantly increase donations.
...

"Waitlist Zero has been pushing this change, and Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-PA), a leader in Congress on kidney issues, is on board. Curiously, the National Kidney Foundation, perhaps the most high-profile nonprofit working on kidney issues, has declined to back this modest change. Troy Zimmerman, the group’s vice president of government relations, told me on the record that the group “supports the concept of paid leave for living donors but has not taken a position on this specific proposal.”

Their reluctance to vocally support this move is puzzling and frustrating. Letting NLDAC cover lost wages is a very modest change that would clearly help people, and move us closer to a world where there are finally enough donors to end the waitlist of people whose lives depend on a kidney transplant."

**********

Here are some earlier posts about NLDAC (I've been on their advisory board since 2016):

Saturday, July 21, 2018  Effects of removing some financial dis-incentives to kidney donation through the National Living Donor Assistance Center (NLDAC)

Tuesday, October 3, 2017  The effect of paying the travel expenses of living kidney donors: Schnier et al. on NLDAC

Thursday, December 22, 2016 NLDAC announces a trial of Lost Wages Reimbursement for Living Organ Donors (funded by the Arnold Foundation)

Tuesday, September 27, 2016 National Living Organ Donor Assistance Center (NLDAC)

Kim Krawiec on repugnance to monetary markets

Kim Krawiec has a forthcoming article in the Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), focusing on repugnance, using global kidney exchange as a main example:

Kidneys without Money 

 Krawiec, Kimberly D.

Appeared or available online: November 27, 2018

Kidneys without Money
by Kimberly D. Krawiec

"Market design and matching have been especially important for markets in which the use of money is viewed as repugnant or distasteful. This article employs the example of kidney exchange, with a particular focus on a new form, global kidney exchange (GKE), to highlight the manner by which repugnance and the law limit exchange and create scarcity. Yet it also opens the door to innovation that, at each stage of market development, prompts new repugnance concerns and initiates a renegotiation of legal rules, social norms, and institutional barriers."


It is accompanied by commentaries, also focusing on repugnance:

Kimberly D. Krawiec
Kidneys without Money
DOI: 10.1628/jite-2019-0003

CommentsI. Glenn Cohen
On Repugnance, Distribution, and the Global Kidney Exchange
DOI: 10.1628/jite-2019-0004

Weyma Lübbe

Understanding (One's Own) Repugnances
DOI: 10.1628/jite-2019-0005

****************
Here's the updated reference
 Kidneys without Money
by Kimberly D. Krawiec
Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE)
Jahrgang 175 (2019) / Heft 1, S. 4-19 (16)

Gift-giving cycles: kidney exchange stories from Britain and Israel

The Guardian has a podcast about a British kidney exchange involving three patient-donor pairs. They call it a "chain" but they mean a cycle--it's a cycle of gift giving. You can listen at the link.

Would you give your kidney to a stranger?
The UK’s living donor scheme allows six people to enter a chain, and three of them will get a new kidney from a stranger. Rachel Williams speaks to six participants. 

"The UK’s living donor scheme allows six people to enter a chain, and three of them will get a new kidney from a stranger. Such chains are anonymous but, for the first time, the Guardian’s Rachel Williams has brought together six participants.

In today’s episode, we hear from those giving and receiving a kidney, and Williams explains how the matches are made possible. "

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

And from YNet, a story of a non-directed donor who became a directed donor and part of a cycle with four patient-donor pairs:

The kidney club: Doctors at Beilinson Hospital performed an extraordinary 8-way kidney surgery involving 4 donors and 4 recipients brought together by Matnat Chaim, dedicated to encouraging altruistic kidney donations.

the 4 recipients

"The transplant chain was facilitated by Matnat Chaim, an Israeli non-profit dedicated to encouraging healthy volunteers to donate kidneys to patients requiring a transplant. The organization, which has already facilitated 626 transplants to date, was founded in 2007 by Rabbi Yeshayahu Heber after he found himself needing a kidney, finding a donor and then setting out to help others who were in the same predicament.

"This kidney donor chain began with altruistic donor Benjamin, who donated to a man named Lee. Yardena, Lee’s partner, in turn donated a kidney to a woman named Leah, whose son, Yonatan, donated a kidney to a man named Suheib. Suheib’s mother, Maison, then donated her kidney to a woman named Gil—who was meant to be the original recipient of the kidney donated by Benjamin.

""I approached Matnat Chaim Chairman Rabbi Heber and asked him to help me find a kidney donor," said Gil, 36, adding, "to my delight, Benjamin, a person I don’t even know, agreed to donate his kidney … unfortunately though he wasn’t a match.”

"After tests conducted by doctors at Beilinson ahead of the planned cross-transplant, a possibility arose for Gil to be at the receiving end of a new kidney.

"We have all become like family," Gil continued, “All of us are from a different background—religious, secular, right and left-wing, Jews and Arabs—there is now a special connection between us."
*********

See my previous posts on Matnat Chaim
******

Gift giving rings have for some reason reminded me today of the anthropological literature on gift giving in cycles through Kula rings in New Guinea, studied by the early anthropologist/ethnographer Bronisław Malinowski.

Merry Xmas to all of you for whom today (or yesterday) is a day of gift giving.

Birthright citizenship and birth tourism

Birthright citizenship (i.e. every child born within the country is a citizen) is (perhaps unsurprisingly) a new-world phenomenon: it occurs widely in the Americas, which were populated largely by immigrants.

The map comes from:
Birthright Citizenship in the United States--A Global Comparison

Prosperous countries that give citizenship to everyone born within their borders (regardless of their parents' citizenship) can be attractive places to give birth, particularly if they have good medical care and comfortable surroundings, and particularly for families whose home may be problematic for political or economic reasons.

Birthright citizenship has become a political issue in the U.S. under the Trump administration, as part of a larger repugnance towards immigration.
NY Times: President Wants to Use Executive Order to End Birthright Citizenship
“We’re the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States for 85 years, with all of those benefits,” Mr. Trump told Axios during an interview that was released in part on Tuesday, making a false claim. “It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous. And it has to end.”

While some of that repugnance focuses on countries in Central and South America, there is also an expensive birth tourism market, catering e.g. to families from Russia and China.

Here's a recent story from Bloomberg:
There’s No Stopping the Russian Baby Boom in Miami
But it’s not, the new mothers insist, about the U.S. passport. “Why does Trump think everyone is dying to have one?”

"Being a birth tourist in Sunny Isles Beach isn’t cheap, with agencies charging as much as $50,000 to set up housing, hire interpreters, find doctors and deal with paperwork. Those who can’t afford that level of service buy smaller packages and rent apartments in far-flung suburbs, sometimes teaming up to share lodgings and expenses.
...
"The focus of Trump’s criticism hasn’t been the abuse of the system but the fact that it exists. One of his arguments against birthright citizenship is that when the babies born on U.S. soil become adults, they can petition for their parents to live permanently in the country.

But to many of the Russians in Sunny Isles, at least, this idea sounded unappealing. The biggest deterrent: They’d have to start paying personal income taxes that are more than double what they are in Russia."
********
And a story of a different sort from Newsweek:
FEDS RAID 'MATERNITY HOTELS' WHERE TOURISTS PAID UP TO $80K TO GIVE BIRTH IN U.S.
"Though it’s not illegal to have their babies in the United States, birth tourists usually lie to immigration officials about their reasons for travel, according to an official cited by NBC. The bigger focus, however, are the organizers of websites that targeted women in China and sold the "maternity hotel" stays to them.

"For that reason, authorities did not arrest the women staying in the buildings on Wednesday, but instead will use them as witnesses in an attempt to prosecute the "handlers."
************

And here's a headline that looks like it could come from the U.S., but comes instead from Canada:

Feds studying 'birth tourism' as new data shows higher non-resident birth rates
BY THE CANADIAN PRESS
"OTTAWA — The federal government is studying the issue of “birth tourism” with a view to better understand the scope of this practice within Canada and its impacts.

"This comes as new research published by Policy Options today shows the number of non-Canadian residents giving birth in Canadian hospitals is much higher than in figures reported by Statistics Canada.
...
"Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen ... says Canada does not collect information on whether a woman is pregnant when entering Canada, nor can a woman be denied entry solely because she is pregnant or might give birth in Canada."

High expectations for legalized marijuana in NY State next year

The NY Times has the story:

Cuomo Moves to Legalize Recreational Marijuana in New York Within Months

"Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced that he would push to legalize recreational marijuana next year, a move that could generate more than $1.7 billion in sales annually and put New York in line with several neighboring states.
....
"Ten other states and Washington, D.C., have legalized recreational marijuana, spending the new tax revenue on a range of initiatives, including schools and transportation."