353 | Alvin Roth on the Economics of Morally Contested Markets
episode
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
1h 14m
2 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 4 months ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Mindscape Podcast. I'm your host, Sean Carroll. I'm sure that various Mindscape listeners have opinions about markets in economics, the way that we set prices and exchange rates for all sorts of goods and services.
What are morally contested markets and why do they matter?
Markets are clearly everywhere, both, of course, in capitalist countries, but even elsewhere, there are things that play the roles of markets, deciding how different people who want to sell things and buy things can decide on a fair rate of exchange and make those exchanges happen. They also have downsides. Markets can be exploitative. They can be unfair. They can be monopolized and so forth. Put aside. all of those issues for the moment. So forget about most of the ways in which markets help us or harm us in typical everyday situations. Let's focus in on an ideal situation where you have one party who has something that they don't need anymore. They want to get rid of it. They And you have another party who would like that item and has some money or other commodities in order to spend to get that item.
And they're both interested in doing this. They would both be made happier by having this exchange happen. Is it always a good thing? to allow that exchange to happen? You might say yes until you think about it a little bit more and you go like, well, okay, there are counter examples. Like what if the, as we'll talk about in this podcast, what if the good in question is a contract to assassinate somebody? That might not be something that the society really wants to let happen as an exchange in the free market. But that's OK. That's just blatantly illegal. A similar case is what if it's some meth or heroin or other addictive drug? Then again, even if both parties are very interested in doing it, you might not want to let it happen.
But again, you would just pass a law saying, OK, this is this kind of thing. ¶¶ Why can't I just sell them my kidney if both of us would be made happier by that transaction? Generally, in most countries, almost all, as we'll hear, in the world, you're not allowed to do that. You're not allowed to sell your kidney. You're also not allowed to sell your kid, your child. If you have a baby and you're thinking, well, you know, I don't really want to have a baby. I bet there's some other family that would have a baby and you want to sell it for a couple hundred thousand dollars. not allowed in most countries in the world. So where do we draw the line? Are we always drawing the line in the right place, letting these markets happen or not letting them happen?
Are there ways that we could let them happen that would make people happier or be more fair? There are real worries about exploitation and things like that. You know, powerful, rich people taking advantage of powerless, poor people. But then again, If the way that they're exploited is to give the poor people more money that they can use for something, maybe that's good. These are genuine questions, I think. And today's podcast guest is Alvin Roth, who is a Nobel Prize winning economist at Stanford. He has a new book out called Moral Economics. From prostitution to organ sales, what controversial transactions reveal about how markets work. And the subtitle is playing a role there because he's going to be talking about a lot of markets and potential markets and things that we often feel a little bit reluctant to let be subject to market forces.
And he doesn't come out and say, but we should. He says, let's examine what's going on here. There are deleterious effects in society that you could have by just letting the free market run rampant.
How do markets function in ideal versus real situations?
There are other cases where maybe it would be good. to have a little bit more market equilibrium situation impose itself on these transactions. So it's food for thought, both a good lesson in economics, but also lots to think about in terms of morality, ethics, psychology, the law, things like that. A very good mindscape-y kind of conversation topic. So let's go.
So
Alvin Roth, welcome to the Mindscape Podcast. Thank you.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:16
2
What are morally contested markets and why do they matter?
0:16–4:10
3
How do markets function in ideal versus real situations?
4:10–12:17
4
Why is selling organs illegal in most places?
12:17–15:04
5
What are the implications of allowing kidney sales?
15:04–22:00
6
How do societal values influence market regulations?
22:00–25:21
7
What distinguishes matching markets from commodity markets?
25:21–31:41
8
What role do trade-offs play in market design?
31:41–1:13:58
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
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