Science turns out to be like liberal democracy: imperfect but better than the available alternatives #econsky #academicsky #science @vaccines marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2025/09/scin...

Our beloved Banu must be smiling from above today ✨💙 So emotional, happy, and proud of this milestone. Deepest congratulations to the wonderful Prof. Dr. Sezai Yilmaz and his amazing team. What a legacy 🙏❤️

Sezai Yılmaz hocamızın Malatya’da Avrupa’nın en başarılı karaciğer nakil merkezlerinden birini kurmasının ve sonrasında yollarımızın kesişerek dünyanın en etkili karaciğer çapraz nakil sistemini en kıymetlimiz-rahmetli eşim-Banu’nun anısına kurmamızın hikayesi🫶 www.fortuneturkey.com/malatyayi-du...

Yesterday, our amazing İnönü University partners showcased dynamic nature of liver exchange! We had an O blood-type patient with a O blood-type donor in a planned 3-way exchange. Pre-op calculations suggested graft size was too small for a direct transplant.

Please join us for the 4-lecture mini course I will give on minimalist market design at University of StGallen this week. The course is open to all and available both in person and via zoom. See below for the registration info and the link in the next comment for the course slides.

Congratulations Stefanie Stantcheva @s-stantcheva.bsky.social for this great recognition 👏 Very well-deserved 🏅

The Turkish opposition held a massive rally today in one of Erdoğan’s most loyal strongholds. A farmer nailed it: "You can’t run a country with radish and turnip. You run it with truth, law, and justice." The turnip bit might be a coincidence — but it still lands a little too well in the U.S.

Enfes bir analiz 👌 www.ayrim.org/guncel/ulkey...

Unfortunately, this post has aged far better than I ever wished it would 👇 #EconSky

A collusion of autocrat wannabes: According to CHP leader Özgür Özel, Erdoğan secured Trump’s tacit approval for the arrest of Turkey’s opposition leader—while Trump, in turn, has been increasingly embracing Erdoğan-style authoritarian tactics. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...?

Given the strong parallels between leadership styles of Trump and Erdogan, and the rapid deterioration of democratic institutions in the US, the same headline equally applies to Americam democracy 🙁

Before his arrest on bogus charges, opposition presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu said: “No salvation alone; either all of us together, or none of us.” His words echo far beyond Turkey — a powerful call to unite against authoritarianism.

Here's an open letter to the American people, that I was proud to sign along with thousands of other members of the National Academy of Sciences #EconSky #AcademicSky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2025/03/open...

Congestion and congestion pricing: Ostrovsky and Kominers (QED) #Econsky #congestion marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2025/03/mike...

Excellent analysis… www.cer.eu/insights/don...

Erdogan, during his tenure as Mayor of Istanbul in 1990s famously stated “Democracy is like a train: when we reach our destination, we get off.” More than 2 million people gathered today in Istanbul (despite a 9 day holiday) to show Turkish people’s commitment to democracy.

Before his arrest on bogus charges, opposition presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu said: “No salvation alone; either all of us together, or none of us.” His words echo far beyond Turkey — a powerful call to unite against authoritarianism.

Trump’s policies embolden the Erdoğan regime to push Turkey toward full-blown dictatorship, while Musk’s X suspends opposition accounts amid civil unrest. www.politico.eu/article/musk...

Truly looking forward to this event. Please join the subsequent mini course I will give on minimalist market design if you are close by to St. Gallen in late May. www.unisg.ch/en/news/even...

Last year @shengwuli.bsky.social pointed out that the core tenet of my minimalist market design framework—"Don't fix what's not broken"—echoes Chesterton’s Fence (now discussed in Section 2.2.2). In an age of Trumpian & DOGE policies, this tenet feels especially relevant. arxiv.org/pdf/2401.00307

Fantastic research program offering solutions to challenges Boston Public Schools officials faced 2 decades ago when choosing between the Deferred Acceptance and Top Trading Cycles. The framework by ‪@charmelades.bsky.social & @aromeromedina.bsky.social could have served as an innovative compromise.

Thank you, Al, for promoting our collaborators' work. You can more learn about the background of how we initiated the Liver Paired Exchange Program in Malatya in Section 12.3 of the manuscript of @tayfunsonmez.bsky.social arxiv.org/pdf/2401.003...

In these difficult times, we find solace in the achievements of our partners in Malatya, Turkey, who performed their fifth 6-way liver exchange today 👏 Having performed 29 LE transplants in 2025 through the Banu Bedestenci Sönmez LPE system, they are on track to surpass their record of 122 in 2024 🥇

For years, I have argued that there should be a penalty for producing non-impactful research, especially in top outlets. Such a mechanism would deter the producing mediocre research, whether generated with or w/o AI. It would also help curb the undue advantage held by gatekeepers in academia.

Opposition from civil society is no doubt important, but it's effective, organized, *unified* political opposition that is needed to reverse the authoritarian slide. That at least is the lesson I draw from (the failures of the opposition parties in) Erdogan's Turkey. Looking at you, Democrats!

We have just advertised a one-year postdoc in Oxford for anyone interested in economic theory and especially market design: econjobmarket.org/positions/11.... Feel free to reach out for more info! Applications from folks on the current job market and those planning to go next year are welcome!

DeepSeek breakthrough highlights the value of use-inspired basic research in designing products, policies, and institutions over purely engineering-driven approaches, as noted in Section 3 of my minimalist market design monograph. arxiv.org/pdf/2401.00307

One would normally want to wait longer to evaluate the effects of major policy changes, but the results of the first three days of #CongestionPricing in New York City are so striking that it is already possible to make some (at least preliminary) conclusions.

I am proud to announce that the BBS Liver Exchange System that I co-founded (along with Tayfun Sönmez and Sezai Yilmaz) just facilitated its 201st transplant. I am very proud to be helping such a brilliant and dedicated bunch of doctors and professionals. caprazkaracigernakli.inonu.edu.tr/en

Another milestone for the Banu Bedestenci Sönmez Liver Paired Exchange System: With today’s emergency 3-way exchange, it became the first system to surpass 200 transplants. In 2024, the system performed 124 transplants, 45% of all transplants. No other system performed more than 10 in a year. 1/3

Beyond making referee reviews and author response to accepted papers available, I think there is a lot of value making rejected papers and their responses also available. There will be more self policing in what authors submit and where, and reviewers will be more diligent in their reviews.

How about doing away with the basic vs applied science division, and going for “use-inspired basic science” as defined by Donald Stokes in his landmark piece on Pasteur’s Quadrant. See Section 3 of my revised monograph on minimalist market design for a discussion of this arxiv.org/pdf/2401.00307

It was a *lot* of fun editing this Special Issue in honour of Vince. The topics covered in these papers barely scratch the surface of Vince's wide-ranging interests and contributions. But I think they nicely reflect Vince's early research interests going back all the way to his PhD...

#EconBluesky Journal of Mechanism and Institution Design, new volume 9, Special Issue in Honour of Vincent P. Crawford, available at www.mechanism-design.org @uniklagenfurt.bsky.social @york.ac.uk @t8el.bsky.social @skominers.bsky.social @vincecrawford.bsky.social @hexxxeh.bsky.social

Thank you to many who provided valuable input on my monograph on minimalist market design. Here is a much revised and expanded version. It introduces a design framework that is useful for generating cutting-edge research with strong potential for policy impact. #EconSky arxiv.org/pdf/2401.00307 1/

Some of the most important lottery anomalies from the behavioral risk literature (e.g., probability weighting and loss aversion) actually have nothing to do with risk. They also arise in perfectly deterministic settings. Lead article in the latest AER issue: www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...