Monday, February 15, 2021

Multiple queues for Covid vaccines, as pharmacies join the supply chain

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  It is good news that pharmacies are now being included among the places that can dispense Covid vaccinations , because not everyone is con...
Sunday, February 14, 2021

Margo St. James, (1937-2021) fought to make sex work safer, and legal

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  The NY Times has the story Margo St. James, Advocate for Sex Workers, Dies at 83.  She founded a group called COYOTE (Call Off Your Old Ti...
Saturday, February 13, 2021

Surrogacy still repugnant (and illegal) in Michigan

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Michigan is now one of only a handful of U.S. states that criminalize commercial surrogacy and/or don't recognize (or severely restrict)...
Friday, February 12, 2021

European Network for Collaboration on Kidney Exchange Conference next Friday

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  David Manlove writes to announce a conference on kidney exchange next Friday, via Zoom, on Central European Time: " Day of talks on k...
Thursday, February 11, 2021

Economics at the extremes (of gender and salary): UC Berkeley report

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  This report includes two figures in which the discipline of Economics is near one of the extremes.  The regression models on gender and sa...
Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Equity v. efficiency in vaccination

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Here's a sad story from the NY Times, as we struggle with getting people vaccinated, while making sure that everything is fair and squar...

London Metals Exchange proposes to end in-person trading

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  Another colorful market mechanism looks set to bite the dust, replaced by electronic/computerized trading. The WSJ has the story: After 14...
Tuesday, February 9, 2021

Understanding Big Data:Data Calculus In The Digital Era : report from the Luohan Academy

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  Here's a new report from the Luohan Academy Understanding Big Data:Data Calculus In The Digital Era    Feb 05, 2021  Authors Luohan Co...
Monday, February 8, 2021

Repugnant speech: the NYT and the "N word"

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  NPR has the story: Two Prominent 'New York Times' Journalists Depart Over Past Behavior   by David Folkenflik    February 6 "...
Sunday, February 7, 2021

Financing drug discovery

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 Bloomberg has a nice story about financial innovation in funding drug discovery startups: Out of Grief, MIT’s Andrew Lo Invented a Better W...
Saturday, February 6, 2021

Kidney black market at an Afghan hospital

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  The NY Times reports today on an Afghan hospital at which people in need of a transplant can buy a kidney.  The report focuses on apparent...
Friday, February 5, 2021

Senate Finance Committee subpoenas UNOS

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  There's a new sheriff in town in Washington, and Congress is taking note by investigating UNOS, the United Network for Organ Sharing, ...
Thursday, February 4, 2021

The demand for a uterus transplant among transgender women (a survey study)

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  A couple of years ago I gave a Department of Surgery Grand Rounds (a dawn seminar ) at Stanford. Much later in the day, at dinner with tra...
Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Non-Simultaneous Kidney Exchange Cycles in India: new design, in Transplant International by Kute and Rees et al.

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  Perhaps the biggest part of the ongoing design of kidney exchange around the world involves adapting to constantly changing local conditio...
Tuesday, February 2, 2021

Vaccination (and mask wearing) as repugnant transactions

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 If a repugnant transaction is one that some people want to participate in, and other people think they shouldn't be allowed to (even th...
Monday, February 1, 2021

Economics and Engineering (and market design): some history and prehistory, at Stanford and elsewhere

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The  December 2020 issue of History of Political Economy  is devoted to Economics and Engineering. Here's an account of Stanford and Bob...
Sunday, January 31, 2021

Paying employees to be vaccinated against Covid. (Is that repugnant? Could it be illegal??)

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 Apparently paying workers to get vaccinated (even giving them paid time off to get vaccinated) may face some legal complications. The Washi...
Saturday, January 30, 2021

Mechanism design conference (virtually) at Pitt, April 15-17, with keynotes by Tuomas Sandholm and Utku Unver

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  Here's the announcement: the conference is sponsored by the NBER Mechanism Design for Vulnerable Populations Thurs Apr 15- Sat Apr 17,...
Friday, January 29, 2021

Vaccine delivery in the U.S. continues to be congested

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As of today, congestion is still competing with short supply to limit vaccination in the US. Some doses are being wasted or delayed in the n...
Thursday, January 28, 2021

National Academies committee on Donor Organ Procurement, Allocation, and Distribution

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The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine have formed a committee on A Fairer and More Equitable, Cost-Effective, and Tra...
Wednesday, January 27, 2021

Basketball is still adjusting to the three-point field goal

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Rules are an important part of the design of marketplaces, and also of games and competitive sports. And it can take time for participants t...
Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Removing disincentives from kidney donation: pro and con in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases

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 Two dueling papers in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases consider the effects of compensating kidney donors to remove disincentives fr...
Monday, January 25, 2021

Congestion in vaccine delivery, and shortage of overall supply: latest news, and a call for increased production

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Covid vaccines in many parts of the U.S. are being distributed only slowly, while other places are experiencing shortages.  The NY Times bri...