Moral Economics

From the right to sell a kidney to the cost of a surrogate birth, our sense of “right and wrong” shapes the economy more than we realize. Nobel laureate Alvin Roth - the world’s leading “philosopher-economist” - unpacks the hidden moral codes that govern our most intimate transactions. This is a clear-eyed guide to understanding where the market ends, where morality begins, and how we can design a world that honors both – Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson, Nobel laureates, Stanford UniversityWith clarity and compassion, Al Roth explores the transactions society cannot escape - surrogacy, the purchase of body parts, the sale of sex, and a host of “repugnant” relationships. What should be regulated? What should be banned? What are the limits of using price in the marketplace? Be prepared to think in new ways and gain from the insights of a great market designer – Claudia Goldin, Nobel laureate and author of CAREER AND FAMILYAlvin Roth received the Nobel Prize for work in economics that has saved thousands of lives. In Moral Economics, Roth applies his open-minded, evidence-based thinking to controversial issues at the intersection of markets and morals, where his way of thinking could save even more lives – Peter Singer, author of ETHICS IN THE REAL WORLDA surprising large part of economics is about things money can’t buy, for many good and bad and complicated reasons. This wonderful book by the leading scholar in that area of economics is something else that just money could never buy. It’s a labor of love, a testament from a lifetime of thought and research – Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo, Nobel laureates and authors of POOR ECONOMICS

Alvin E. Roth, PhD, is the McCaw Professor of Economics at Stanford University and is one of the world’s leading experts in the fields of market design and game theory. He was a corecipient of the 2012 Nobel Prize in economics. Roth received his Ph.D. at Stanford University at the age of 22 and was tenured at the University of Illinois by the age of 25. Before joining the Stanford faculty, he was the George Gund Professor of Economics and Business Administration in the Department of Economics at Harvard University and in the Harvard Business School. Roth won the Nobel Prize for his work as one of the founders of the new economic discipline of market design, the subject of his 2015 book Who Gets What - and Why? The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design.