Moral Economics by Alvin Roth

Moral Economics by Alvin Roth

A Nobel Prize-⁠winning economist shows us why we have to deal in trade-offs when we can't agree on what's right and what's wrong.

Some of the most intractable controversies in our divided society are, at bottom, about what actions and transactions should be banned. Should women and couples be able to purchase contraception, access in vitro fertilization, and end pregnancy by obtaining an abortion? Should people be able to buy marijuana? What about fentanyl? Can someone be paid to donate blood plasma, or a kidney?

Disagreements are fierce because arguments on both sides are often made in uncompromising moral or religious terms. But in Moral Economics, Nobel Prize-winning economist Alvin E. Roth asserts that we can make progress on these and other difficult topics if we view them as markets-tools to help decide who gets what-and understand how those markets can be fine-tuned to be more functional. Markets don't have to allow everything or ban everything. Prudent market design can find a balance between preserving people's rights to pursue their own interests and protecting the most vulnerable from harms.

Combining Roth's unparalleled expertise as market design pioneer with his incisive, witty accounts of complicated issues, Moral Economics offers a powerful and innovative new framework for resolving today's hardest controversies.

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.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781399816625
ISBN 10	1399816624
Title	Moral Economics
Author	Alvin Roth
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	John Murray Press
Year published	2026-05-21
Number of pages	352
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.