"A Nobel laureate reveals the often surprising rules that govern a
vast array of activities -- both mundane and life-changing -- in which
money may play little or no role. If you've ever sought a job or hired
someone, applied to college or guided your child into a good
kindergarten, asked someone out on a date or been asked out, you've
participated in a kind of market. Most of the study of economics deals
with
commodity markets, where the price of a good connects sellers and
buyers. But what about other kinds of "goods," like a spot in the Yale
freshman class or a position at Google? This is the territory of
matching markets, where "sellers" and "buyers" must choose each other,
and price isn't the only factor determining who gets what. Alvin E. Roth
is one of the world's leading experts on matching markets. He has even
designed several of them, including the exchange that places medical
students in residencies and the system that increases the number of
kidney transplants by better matching donors to patients. In Who Gets
What -- And Why, Roth reveals the matching markets hidden around us and
shows how to recognize a good match and make smarter, more confident
decisions"