Sex, Drugs, and Death

Economist Alvin Roth, winner of the economics Nobel in 2012 for his work on market design, joins Cardiff to discuss his new book, Moral Economics: From Prostitution to Organ Sales: What Controversial Transactions Reveal About How Markets Work.The book is about morally contested markets: transactions that participants would like to engage in but that others think they shouldn't be allowed to, even when it’s hard to identify measurable harms to those objectors. It's also a great way to understand how markets interact with the law, politics, social norms, income inequality, human psychology, and so much more than just monetary exchange.In this chat, Alvin and Cardiff discuss:Medical aid in dying and the economics of “repugnant” marketsSex work, trafficking, and the unintended consequences of criminalizationPlural marriage and the challenge of designing new legal protectionsSports gambling and the rise of prediction marketsKidney exchanges, the transplantation shortage, and the opposition to cross-border exchangesThroughout the conversation, they confront the trade-offs involved in both allowing controversial markets and trying to ban them.Related links:Moral Economics: From Prostitution to Organ Sales: What Controversial Transactions Reveal About How Markets WorkAlvin Roth’s website