Mary in America

How to Price the Priceless

Episode Summary

Episode Notes

Al Roth won a Nobel prize for his work helping create a market for matching kidney donors with people who needed kidneys. You know what would really help people who need kidneys though? If they could just buy them. But almost no country allows that, because it feels like it would create bad outcomes, and because it feels gross. Al loves thinking about these awkward intersections of money and morality. He calls these “repugnant markets.” And he has pretty thoroughly convinced me that it would be GOOD to let people pay for organs.

Further Reading: 

Moral Economics: From Prostitution to Organ Sales, What Controversial Transactions Reveal about How Markets Work