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Show notes
Economic markets are efficient ways of deciding fair prices, at least in ideal circumstances of perfect competition, information, and choice. But there is more to life than fair prices. Two people might decide on a fair price to carry out a contract killing, but society generally frowns on the idea. Many examples of morally contestable markets feature less consensus than that one: sex work, drugs, selling organs, adopting children. In his new book _[Moral">https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/alvin-e-roth/moral-economics/9781541702011/">Moral]( https://www.fast-growing-trees.com/">Fast]( https://quince.com/MINDSCAPE">Quince. Blog post with transcript: [">https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/05/11/353-alvin-roth-on-the-economics-of-morally-contested-markets/">]( ) _Support Mindscape on [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll"]( Patreon._ Alvin Roth received his Ph.D. in operations research from Stanford University. He is currently the Craig and Susan McCaw Professor of Economics at Stanford University and the Gund Professor of Economics and Business Administration Emeritus at Harvard. He was President of the American Economic Association in 2017\. He and Lloyd Shapley shared the [2012">https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2012/roth/facts/">2012]( https://web.stanford.edu/\~alroth/">Stanford]( https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=C3HHY7oAAAAJ&hl=en">Google]( https://www.amazon.com/stores/Alvin-E.-Roth/author/B000AQ3998">Amazon]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin\_E.\_Roth">Wikipedia