Nobel laureate Al Roth and the economics of organ sales

{"text":[[{"start":7.65,"text":"The economist Alvin Roth been talking about kidneys since at least 2003, noting time and again that kidneys are in short supply, waiting lists are growing longer, and people are dying as a result."}],[{"start":19.6,"text":"So why is Roth — who appears on this week’s episode of the Economics Show podcast — still banging on about kidneys? Well, because all of those things are still getting worse."}],[{"start":30.5,"text":"Take the US. The number of kidney transplants carried out each year has been growing, which is good news."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":36.85,"text":"The bad news? The number of people being added to transplant wait-lists is rising faster:"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":42.45,"text":"According to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network — a non-profit body that links professionals involved in organ donation and transplantation — more than 95,000 patients were waiting for kidney transplants at pixel time. Judging by the charts above, that number is only likely to go one way. "}],[{"start":61.050000000000004,"text":"Similar dynamics are at play in the UK (where the number of people on the active kidney transplant list rose 11 per cent last year). So what’s Roth’s solution? Well, he’s an economist. So naturally . . . "}],[{"start":null,"text":"

We could design an ethical, legal, equitable market that would . . . save many thousands of lives every year in the US, and if extended around the world, millions of people around the world.

"}],[{"start":73.10000000000001,"text":"Demand outstrips supply, so Roth suggests incentivising demand by paying donors. He suggests a “very generous” theoretical price tag of $80,000-100,000:"}],[{"start":null,"text":"

In the United States, a transplant cost is around the same, roughly, as a year of dialysis. But after a year of dialysis, you need another year of dialysis. So Medicare spends fifty-five billion dollars a year on kidney failure. Almost all of that is on dialysis . . . So you could really cut the bill to the American taxpayer and still pay eighty thousand or a hundred thousand dollars for a kidney, which I bet is above the clearing price.

"}],[{"start":85.7,"text":"Payment for kidneys is controversial, with only one country, Iran, allowing it. But Roth puts forward a strong argument for paying donors, saving lives, and making a (very small) dent in health spending. "}],[{"start":98.9,"text":"It’s just not kidneys, either. In his discussion with Soumaya, Roth makes the case for paying surrogate mothers (illegal in most of western Europe, India, Canada, China and elsewhere) and, err, buying Greenland. Sort of. "}],[{"start":111.80000000000001,"text":"You can listen to his discussion with Soumaya Keynes on the Economics Show, or read a transcript if you prefer. As always, we welcome your comments below."}],[{"start":127.85000000000001,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1778884051_6239.mp3"}