Alvin Roth: Moral Economics, from Prostitution to Kidney Transplant Markets
5/12/20261 hr 42 min
Alvin Roth is a Nobel Prizewinning Economist whose work on designing markets has had real world impacts that may have saved thousands of lives around the world, while arousing strong emotions both for and against the programs he has helped put in place. Clearly not one to shy away from controversy, he represents the best of what The Origins Project is trying to promote: applying science and reason to public policy. In short, connecting science and culture!
Roth’s new book, which is fantastic, and comes out the same day this podcast is released deals with issues th...
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First 90 secondsLawrence M. Krauss· Host0:00
[ on-hold music] Well, welcome Alvin Roth, a remarkable economist, a remarkable human being. I've learned even more recently how remarkable you are. And for full disclosure, I should inform people that Alvin and I finished one of my favorite podcasts I've ever done, that was three hours long, earlier today, and the problem was I forgot to press record. And with a show of unbelievable altruism and generosity, he agreed for us to record. So this will be an abridged version of it, maybe, maybe, maybe even better, I hope so. But I thank you very much for your patience and kindness.
Alvin Roth· Guest0:44
I'm, I'm glad to be here.
Lawrence M. Krauss· Host0:46
Yeah, sure. Well, that's not true, but I appreciate it. Um- Well, for, for some values of the word glad, yeah. Yeah, that's right. Well, it's, you know, a- for me, any time I could spend with you is better. I'm enjoying it. Well, the, the reason I wanted to have you on originally was w- when I learned about your new book, which, which comes out May 12th, uh, Moral Economics: From Prostitution to Organ Sales, What Controversial Transactions Reveal about How Markets Work, and the idea intrigued me, and I had no idea how really intriguing it would be. But if you look, you'll see every page has tons of comments, uh, w- because it was worth thinking about, and it prompted my thinking about issues that we don't normally talk about, and that's one, one of the things I, I like to, um, I like to, to,