Who Gets What - And Why

The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design

By: Alvin E. Roth

Narrated by: Peter Berkrot

Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2015 Alvin E. Roth (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Good overview of matching markets

Good overview of matching markets by someone who helped shape the field. A bit repetitive and the performance is silly.

Great Intro to Contemporary Markets

Roth’s compelling discussion of markets, their strengths and limitations in certain contexts, based on his career work that led to his Nobel Prize in 2012, is a great intro read for the lay person wanting to understand econ today without wanting to rehash the same tired political debates. I agree with others that the narrator is a little corny sounding, but it is not so much that it spoils the listen.

A Tale of the Good & the Bad

The content is interesting and important. The book is thoughtful, well-organized, and effectively communicated. You should "read" it.

The reader is pedantic, infuriatingly so. His accent is absolutely grating. The word "market" is in almost every sentence, and every single time the reader deletes the "r," and inserts in its place at least one, if not two, "w's." I thought that he would drive me crazy.

Read it. but not on Audible. You have been warned.

What the Author Did On Summer Vacation

This book covers a lot of economics, and a fair amount of applied game theory, while talking principly of market design. Because I am deeply interested in each of these topics, I wanted to like it. I should have liked it. I struggled to like it. But in the end, my struggle was only partially successful.
Somehow it seemed to me that, again and again, the author disappointed. He obviously knows a great deal. But it seemed that rather than giving full measure of knowledge, the author was working overtime to impress. Something like the self-important essay my fourth grade teacher assigned the whole class to write: What I Did Over Summer Vacation.
They say, "If you done it, it ain't bragging!" but this author's rendition of historical events seemed (to me at least) to be almost as much about sounding impressive as it was about the principles that the author (and his grad students) applied.
I would have loved more exposition of the principles, and less of the principals, the chief of which always was the august author himself.
Perhaps some editor "made him do it" on the theory that narrative sells better than text book exposition. Fair enough. But looking back, I don't think that editor did me a service. The narrative porridge was too thin for my taste.

Ok. Could have been half the length.

What did you like best about Who Gets What - And Why? What did you like least?

There are some fascinating insights in the book.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Meh

Was Who Gets What - And Why worth the listening time?

Not sure. There ARE some fascinating insights, but the book is terribly long winded and filled with unnecessary detail which exhaustingly drags out the points being made. It's almost as if the author wanted it to be part memoir. Like a Russian novel, the material/story could/should have be made in a fraction of the length.

Good explanation of interesting concepts.

Great use of stories to make concepts easy and entertaining to understand. Introduced some new ideas that seemed useful, clear and likely beginner friendly. Listened to it over a long car ride and liked it a lot.

Excellent book about markets

Well written and approachable, a good listen for anyone interested in market design. The reader’s voice was kind of annoying but tolerable.

Good book but lighter on substance than I hoped

Shortlisted this book after catching the authors interview on NPR but was expecting more details on market redesign. The book feels more like an introductory lecture/preview a grad school course. Pick this book up if you're considering following the author or one of his former students to the schools they're currently teaching at.

please get new reader

important book, nearly ruined by reader. Come on Audible, you have resources to improve this.

Interesting Subject, Terrible Narrator

Struggled to finish...but succeeded. Grating narration. FASCINATING subject!
Too much about the author. I'd have appreciated more explanation into the inner workings of his solutions...which appear in the 2nd half of the book.