A Real-World Economist

Forbes profiles the formidable Al Roth, a Freakonomics favorite, by setting him apart from all the trivial things we write about here: “In contrast with the authors of bestselling books like Freakonomics, who are fascinated by obscure but intriguing questions like how to detect cheating by sumo wrestlers,” writes Susan Adams, “Roth relishes real-world challenges.” The article profiles Roth’s work on New York City’s public high-school matching process and his revolutionary “matched pairs” kidney-donor program. Elsewhere, Alex Tabarrok calls Roth “the most influential economist working today.” (Would that it were true …) [%comments]