Ideas of what's fair and what isn't.
These aren't things that are fixed forever.
They're things that can change.
But how they change is a little bit of a mystery.
And the fact that they can change doesn't mean that they aren't enormously powerful at any given moment.
There's this really interesting thing that happens when you're trying to find the right person, the right job, the right college to get into.
You may have a really good idea of what lights you up.
You may feel like there's a total connection, but it's not entirely up to you.
There's got to be this magical meshing where you light up and they light up.
And together you both say, yes, this is a phenomenon called matching markets.
And in today's conversation, we're sitting down with Al Roth, Nobel Prize winning economist and professor, who's been studying these markets, and we dive into some really fascinating, sometimes what would seem like irrational parts of these markets, how they exist around us all day long and control so many of the decisions that we make and what we can learn about the way that these markets interact and how we can get the most out of our interactions with them.
I'm Jonathan Fields.
This is good life project.
So where to begin?
With you?
Let's dive in.
One of the fascinations when I was reading through your book and sort of exploring your work is that you spend a lot of time researching this thing called matching markets or matched markets, and which I had no exposure to before this, or at least in name.
But of course, every day I have exposure.
And it seems like the fundamental question is really, as we go about our lives and we sort of exchange value, there are all these scenarios where you pay cash, but then there are all these much softer scenarios where there's no cash that changes hands.
So if you could just sort of describe the idea of what is a matched market or what is that all about?