THE 2012 NOBEL PRIZE—KIDNEY TRANSPLANTS.

THE 2012 NOBEL PRIZE—KIDNEY TRANSPLANTS. I hope that my horseback explanation of the matching model is correct. If not, in addition to the Economist article, here is the official statement of the Swedish committee which accompanied the award. My nephew Andrew Schaefer, a mathematician who has done work in this area, sent me the link. Andrew’s work has been in the use of the model in matching kidney transplants. The example of kidney transplants seems to be used in explaining how the model relates to—and is different from—how a market operates. There is no market for kidneys, for understandable reasons. Nevertheless, the model can be used to find matches. Consider a person who would offer a kidney to a spouse, but that the blood types don’t work. A complicated series of trades among people in similar positions can expand the number of transplants. Here is a description of the New England Program for Kidney Exchange (NEPKE).