Alvin Roth (left) and Lloyd Shapley were awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for Economics. Prices are often the easiest way to create an efficient market–the person willing to pay the most gets the thing ...

Only Slate Plus members can gift Slate stories. Become a member to share 10 free articles a month. Economics is closely associated with the idea of money, but economic life extends beyond what can be ...

Work that showed how to find optimal matches between people or institutions ‘trading’ in commodities that money can’t buy — such as student places at universities, say, or donated organs — has won the ...

IN MOST countries it is illegal to buy or sell a kidney. If you need a transplant you join a waiting list until a matching organ becomes available. This drives economists nuts. Why not allow willing ...