IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/28500.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Kidney Exchange: An Operations Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Itai Ashlagi
  • Alvin E. Roth

Abstract

Many patients in need of a kidney transplant have a willing but incompatible (or poorly matched) living donor. Kidney exchange programs arrange exchanges among such patient-donor pairs, in cycles and chains of exchange, so each patient receives a compatible kidney. Kidney exchange has become a standard form of transplantation in the United States and a few other countries, in large part because of continued attention to the operational details that arose as obstacles were overcome and new obstacles became relevant. We review some of the key operational issues in the design of successful kidney exchange programs. Kidney exchange has yet to reach its full potential, and the paper further describes some open questions that we hope will continue to attract attention from researchers interested in the operational aspects of dynamic exchange.

Suggested Citation

  • Itai Ashlagi & Alvin E. Roth, 2021. "Kidney Exchange: An Operations Perspective," NBER Working Papers 28500, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28500
    Note: EH
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w28500.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alvin E. Roth, 2009. "What Have We Learned from Market Design?," Innovation Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 9(1), pages 79-112.
    2. Baccara, Mariagiovanna & Lee, SangMok & Yariv, Leeat, 2020. "Optimal dynamic matching," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 15(3), July.
    3. Roth, Alvin E. & Leider, Stephen, 2010. "Kidneys For Sale: Who Disapproves, and Why?," Scholarly Articles 5128483, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    4. Nikhil Agarwal & Itai Ashlagi & Eduardo Azevedo & Clayton R. Featherstone & Ömer Karaduman, 2019. "Market Failure in Kidney Exchange," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(11), pages 4026-4070, November.
    5. , & , E., 2014. "Free riding and participation in large scale, multi-hospital kidney exchange," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 9(3), September.
    6. Zenios, Stefanos & Woodle, E. Steve & Ross, Lainie Friedman, 2001. "Primum Non Nocere: Avoiding Harm to Vulnerable Wait List Candidates in an Indirect Kidney Exchange," Research Papers 1684, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    7. Julio J. Elías & Nicola Lacetera & Mario Macis, 2019. "Paying for Kidneys? A Randomized Survey and Choice Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(8), pages 2855-2888, August.
    8. Francis Bloch & David Cantala, 2017. "Dynamic Assignment of Objects to Queuing Agents," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(1), pages 88-122, February.
    9. Alvin E. Roth, 2007. "Repugnance as a Constraint on Markets," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(3), pages 37-58, Summer.
    10. Roth, Alvin E, 1991. "A Natural Experiment in the Organization of Entry-Level Labor Markets: Regional Markets for New Physicians and Surgeons in the United Kingdom," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(3), pages 415-440, June.
    11. Ross Anderson & Itai Ashlagi & David Gamarnik & Yash Kanoria, 2017. "Efficient Dynamic Barter Exchange," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 65(6), pages 1446-1459, December.
    12. Alvin E. Roth, 2018. "Marketplaces, Markets, and Market Design," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(7), pages 1609-1658, July.
    13. Tayfun Sönmez & M. Utku Ünver & M. Bumin Yenmez, 2020. "Incentivized Kidney Exchange," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(7), pages 2198-2224, July.
    14. Robert Wilson, 2002. "Architecture of Power Markets," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 70(4), pages 1299-1340, July.
    15. Christine Hauser & Hugo Hopenhayn, 2008. "Trading Favors: Optimal Exchange and Forgiveness," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 88, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    16. Esther Duflo, 2017. "Richard T. Ely Lecture: The Economist as Plumber," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(5), pages 1-26, May.
    17. Roth, Alvin E, 1984. "The Evolution of the Labor Market for Medical Interns and Residents: A Case Study in Game Theory," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 92(6), pages 991-1016, December.
    18. Glorie, K.M. & Wagelmans, A.P.M. & van de Klundert, J.J., 2012. "Iterative branch-and-price for hierarchical multi-criteria kidney exchange," Econometric Institute Research Papers EI 2012-11, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Erasmus School of Economics (ESE), Econometric Institute.
    19. Sandro Ambuehl & Muriel Niederle & Alvin E. Roth, 2015. "More Money, More Problems? Can High Pay Be Coercive and Repugnant?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 357-360, May.
    20. Alvin E. Roth, 2002. "The Economist as Engineer: Game Theory, Experimentation, and Computation as Tools for Design Economics," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 70(4), pages 1341-1378, July.
    21. John P. Dickerson & Ariel D. Procaccia & Tuomas Sandholm, 2019. "Failure-Aware Kidney Exchange," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(4), pages 1768-1791, April.
    22. Esther Duflo, 2017. "The Economist as Plumber," NBER Working Papers 23213, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    23. Francis Bloch & David Cantala, 2017. "Dynamic Assignment of Objects to Queuing Agents," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-03968341, HAL.
    24. Milgrom, Paul, 2010. "Simplified mechanisms with an application to sponsored-search auctions," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 62-70, September.
    25. Francis Bloch & David Cantala, 2017. "Dynamic Assignment of Objects to Queuing Agents," Post-Print halshs-03968341, HAL.
    26. Nikhil Agarwal & Charles Hodgson & Paulo Somaini, 2020. "Choices and Outcomes in Assignment Mechanisms: The Allocation of Deceased Donor Kidneys," NBER Working Papers 28064, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    27. Itai Ashlagi & Alvin E. Roth, 2012. "New Challenges in Multihospital Kidney Exchange," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(3), pages 354-359, May.
    28. Blanchet, Jose H. & Reiman, Martin I. & Shah, Virag & Wein, Lawrence M. & Wu, Linjia, 2020. "Asymptotically Optimal Control of a Centralized Dynamic Matching Market with General Utilities," Research Papers 3916, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    29. Charles F. Manski & Anat R. Tambur & Michael Gmeiner, 2019. "Predicting kidney transplant outcomes with partial knowledge of HLA mismatch," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 116(41), pages 20339-20345, October.
    30. Wen Wang & Mathieu Bray & Peter X.-K. Song & John D. Kalbfleisch, 2017. "A Look-Ahead Strategy for Non-directed Donors in Kidney Paired Donation," Statistics in Biosciences, Springer;International Chinese Statistical Association, vol. 9(2), pages 453-469, December.
    31. Nicolau Santos & Paolo Tubertini & Ana Viana & João Pedro Pedroso, 2017. "Kidney exchange simulation and optimization," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 68(12), pages 1521-1532, December.
    32. Shapley, Lloyd & Scarf, Herbert, 1974. "On cores and indivisibility," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 23-37, March.
    33. Avrim Blum & John P. Dickerson & Nika Haghtalab & Ariel D. Procaccia & Tuomas Sandholm & Ankit Sharma, 2020. "Ignorance Is Almost Bliss: Near-Optimal Stochastic Matching with Few Queries," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 68(1), pages 16-34, January.
    34. Rees, Michael Kenneth & Kopke, Jonathan E. & Pelletier, Ronald P. & Segev, Dorry L. & Rutter, Matthew E. & Fabrega, Alfredo J. & Rogers, Jeffrey David & Pankewycz, Oleh G. & Hiller, Janet & Roth, Alvi, 2009. "A Nonsimultaneous, Extended, Altruistic-Donor Chain," Scholarly Articles 29408291, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    35. Xuanming Su & Stefanos A. Zenios, 2006. "Recipient Choice Can Address the Efficiency-Equity Trade-off in Kidney Transplantation: A Mechanism Design Model," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(11), pages 1647-1660, November.
    36. Roth, Alvin E., 1982. "Incentive compatibility in a market with indivisible goods," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 127-132.
    37. Nikhil Agarwal & Itai Ashlagi & Michael A. Rees & Paulo Somaini & Daniel Waldinger, 2021. "Equilibrium Allocations Under Alternative Waitlist Designs: Evidence From Deceased Donor Kidneys," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(1), pages 37-76, January.
    38. Lawrence M. Ausubel & Thayer Morrill, 2014. "Sequential Kidney Exchange," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 6(3), pages 265-285, August.
    39. Duflo, Esther, 2017. "The Economist as Plumber," CEPR Discussion Papers 11881, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    40. Alvin E. Roth & Stephanie W. Wang, 2020. "Opinion: Popular repugnance contrasts with legal bans on controversial markets," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 117(33), pages 19792-19798, August.
    41. Kris Johnson & David Simchi-Levi & Peng Sun, 2014. "Analyzing Scrip Systems," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 62(3), pages 524-534, June.
    42. Elliott Peranson & Alvin E. Roth, 1999. "The Redesign of the Matching Market for American Physicians: Some Engineering Aspects of Economic Design," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(4), pages 748-780, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alvin E. Roth, 2023. "Market Design and Maintenance," NBER Chapters, in: New Directions in Market Design, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Klimentova, Xenia & Biró, Péter & Viana, Ana & Costa, Virginia & Pedroso, João Pedro, 2023. "Novel integer programming models for the stable kidney exchange problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 307(3), pages 1391-1407.
    3. Karen Evelyn Hauge & Snorre Kverndokk & Andreas Lange, 2021. "Why People Oppose Trade Institutions - On Morality, Fairness and Risky Actions," CESifo Working Paper Series 9456, CESifo.
    4. Mehdi Zeynivand & Mehdi Najafi & Mohammad Modarres Yazdi, 2023. "A Recourse Policy to Improve Number of Successful Transplants in Uncertain Kidney Exchange Programs," Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 197(2), pages 476-507, May.
    5. Michel Callon & Alvin E. Roth, 2021. "The design and performation of markets: a discussion," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 11(3), pages 219-239, December.
    6. Morrill, Thayer & Roth, Alvin E., 2024. "Top trading cycles," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    7. Singha, Sumanta & Arha, Himanshu & Kar, Arpan Kumar, 2023. "Healthcare analytics: A techno-functional perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    8. Lei, Xiaochang, 2023. "Optimal queue to minimize waste," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 87-94.
    9. Suresh P. Sethi & Sushil Gupta & Vipin K. Agrawal & Vijay K. Agrawal, 2022. "Nobel laureates’ contributions to and impacts on operations management," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(12), pages 4283-4303, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alvin E. Roth, 2023. "Market Design and Maintenance," NBER Chapters, in: New Directions in Market Design, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Alvin E. Roth, 2009. "What Have We Learned from Market Design?," Innovation Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 9(1), pages 79-112.
    3. Yan Chen & Peter Cramton & John A. List & Axel Ockenfels, 2021. "Market Design, Human Behavior, and Management," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(9), pages 5317-5348, September.
    4. Michel Callon & Alvin E. Roth, 2021. "The design and performation of markets: a discussion," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 11(3), pages 219-239, December.
    5. Roth, Alvin E. & Sonmez, Tayfun & Utku Unver, M., 2005. "Pairwise kidney exchange," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 125(2), pages 151-188, December.
    6. Nikhil Agarwal & Eric Budish, 2021. "Market Design," NBER Working Papers 29367, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Committee, Nobel Prize, 2012. "Alvin E. Roth and Lloyd S. Shapley: Stable allocations and the practice of market design," Nobel Prize in Economics documents 2012-1, Nobel Prize Committee.
    8. Muriel Niederle & Alvin E. Roth, 2009. "The Effects of a Centralized Clearinghouse on Job Placement, Wages, and Hiring Practices," NBER Chapters, in: Studies of Labor Market Intermediation, pages 235-271, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Scott Duke Kominers & Alexander Teytelboym & Vincent P Crawford, 2017. "An invitation to market design," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 33(4), pages 541-571.
    10. Marco LiCalzi, 2022. "Bipartite choices," Decisions in Economics and Finance, Springer;Associazione per la Matematica, vol. 45(2), pages 551-568, December.
    11. Haeringer, Guillaume & Klijn, Flip, 2009. "Constrained school choice," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 144(5), pages 1921-1947, September.
    12. Alvin E Roth & Tayfun Sönmez & M. Utku Ünver, 2005. "Efficient Kidney Exchange: Coincidence of Wants in a Structured Market," Levine's Bibliography 784828000000000126, UCLA Department of Economics.
    13. Alvin Roth, 2008. "Deferred acceptance algorithms: history, theory, practice, and open questions," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 36(3), pages 537-569, March.
    14. Sönmez, Tayfun & Ünver, M. Utku & Yılmaz, Özgür, 2018. "How (not) to integrate blood subtyping technology to kidney exchange," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 193-231.
    15. Nicolò, Antonio & Rodríguez-Álvarez, Carmelo, 2017. "Age-based preferences in paired kidney exchange," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 508-524.
    16. Atila Abdulkadiroglu & Parag A. Pathak & Alvin E. Roth & Tayfun Sönmez, 2006. "Changing the Boston School Choice Mechanism," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 639, Boston College Department of Economics.
    17. Ross Anderson & Itai Ashlagi & David Gamarnik & Michael Rees & Alvin E. Roth & Tayfun Sönmez & M. Utku Ünver, 2015. "Kidney Exchange and the Alliance for Paired Donation: Operations Research Changes the Way Kidneys Are Transplanted," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 45(1), pages 26-42, February.
    18. Kim, Jaehong & Li, Mengling & Xu, Menghan, 2021. "Organ donation with vouchers," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    19. Alvin E. Roth & Tayfun Sönmez & M. Utku Ünver, 2004. "Kidney Exchange," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(2), pages 457-488.
    20. Li, Mengling & Riyanto, Yohanes E. & Xu, Menghan, 2023. "Prioritized organ allocation rules under compatibility constraints," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 403-427.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D47 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Market Design
    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28500. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.