The Connection between Dwarf-Tossing and an Economics Nobel

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In case you missed it, Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley just won the 2012 Economics Nobel (ok, technically the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economics Sciences).
Shapley you should know from the Stable Marriage Problem w/ a nifty example here.
TL;DR --> "Each person has a preference list of the folks of the opposite gender. A pair of people of opposite genders that like each other better than their respective spouses is an instability. How can we pair up all the folks so there are no such instabilities?"

Al Roth (blog here), extended this into all sorts of areas, and in particular in the world of organ trading, horse meat, and other such "repugnant" markets.
The highpoint - IMHO is his glorious paper "Repugnance as a constraint on markets" (go read it), which includes a section on dwarf-tossing.
Yup.
Dwarf-tossing.
To quote
To clarify ideas about repugnance, it may be helpful to look at a relatively uncomplicated case, in which little else besides repugnance seems to be at work. Dwarf tossing seems like a market whose widespread banning involves no more than simple repugnance.

[...] Dwarf tossing is an activity in which a large person throws a small person. The venue often is one in which alcohol is served. It is often a source of livelihood for the small person, with the large person paying for the privilege. While dwarf-tossing is legal in many places, it is sometimes banned by law.
All in all, a pretty good day for game-theorists everywhere, and two in particular...

Update:  On a more serious note, a much much more comprehensive take on the Nobels here...

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David Jhonson said…
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January 31, 2021 at 8:06 AM
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