Repugnant Markets

Blogger Tim Harford got blogger Virginia Postrel, blogger Robin Hanson, and a few non-bloggers such as the Bishop of Swindon to all talk to him for a fascinating BBC radio documentary on repugnant markets. Go read the transcript: it's great stuff. Among the topics covered: paying for someone's kidney; the right of dwarves to be paid to be tossed; life insurance; and prediction markets.

My favorite bit is where the Bishop of Swindon, Lee Rayfield – who's also a PhD in transplantation immunology – says that paying for kidneys creates a "dehumanised society," while donating one altruistically doesn't. But Postrel, who famously donated a kidney herself, is far from sure about that:

HARFORD: For people such as Bishop Rayfield, the essential difference between a market and a kidney exchange is that the exchange preserves an altruistic motive. But is it really true that the gift relationship is better than a straightforward commercial transaction? Sometimes gifts can produce far more onerous obligations than price-tags...
POSTREL: Knowing my particular friend, she would have really liked to do an arm’s length transaction with a stranger where she paid somebody she didn’t know because there can be a great deal of emotional entanglement when there is a gift. It happens to be that I’m not the kind of person to think that she owes me anything, but especially in families there are all kinds of psychodramas that go on with requiring this to be a gift.

It's effectively impossible to donate a kidney anonymously, and in today's society the best way of assuaging the psychodramas associated with saving someone's life is to turn the whole thing into a commercial transaction. I wonder what Lee Rayfield would think if I donated a kidney in return for a large donation to a charity of my choice?