AI makes answers cheaper. It may also make the web that produces them disappear. My new paper, featured by @TheRegister: www.nber.org/papers/w35344

AI and the Collapse of the www

Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...

nber.org

The Register@theregister.com · last mo.

AI search could kill the web without new quality signals and revenue models

❤️❤️❤️ loves teaching. And students often teach you so much in return!

Insanely grateful to anyone who takes the time to read my papers. That’s real effort, and I never take it for granted. When you email/comment with thoughts or send work that connects my thinking to the wider scholarly discourse? Pure joy. Best job ever. Thanks thanks thank 🙏 ❤️❤️

AI can redesign residual risk. Showing why competitive insurance may underuse the very prevention that makes high risks insurable, from @alex8chan.bsky.social www.nber.org/papers/w35444

AI search could kill the web without new quality signals and revenue models www.theregister.com/ai-and-ml/20...

AI search could kill the web without new quality signals and revenue models

Penance payments to websites for failing to forward traffic aren't enough

theregister.com

A need for market design in the age of AI @vmdseminar.bsky.social

NBER@nber.org · last mo.

AI answers can divert web publisher revenue and quality signals. The market design takeaway: without compensation and audits, costly open-web information may fall below replacement, from @alex8chan.bsky.social www.nber.org/papers/w35344

AI answers can divert web publisher revenue and quality signals. The market design takeaway: without compensation and audits, costly open-web information may fall below replacement, from @alex8chan.bsky.social www.nber.org/papers/w35344

Healthcare market design when we want more prevention

NBER@nber.org · 2mo ago

Dynamic risk adjustment can reward prevention and curb coding games by pricing health plans’ lifetime incentives, not one-year spending predictions, from @alex8chan.bsky.social www.nber.org/papers/w35325

Liability can drive AI doctor adoption, but optimal rules depend on the usable medical record: rich records support strong liability; coarse records favor partial rules, from @alex8chan.bsky.social www.nber.org/papers/w35321

People want to know how AI makes decisions—until knowing means they can no longer look away, from @alex8chan.bsky.social www.nber.org/papers/w35240

Speaking with the great sociologist Mark Granovetter gave me the opportunity to tell the joke "“Economists study how people make choices; sociologists study why people don’t have choices.” #sociologysky #economicssky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/05/mark...

Mark Granovetter and I discuss Moral Economics

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

Providing evidence that presumed-consent laws increase organ donation only when strictly enforced and family veto power is limited; weak opt-out regimes show negligible or even negative effects, from @alex8chan.bsky.social, Ayush Gupta, and Yetong Xu www.nber.org/papers/w35169

Al Roth, taking a strong stand in WaPo, in favor of paying kidney donors (thoughtfully & carefully, of course)

Al Roth@alroth.bsky.social · 3mo ago

This morning the Washington Post published my op-ed online (scheduled to appear in print on Sunday). 800 words is hardly enough to explain why I think what I do...I could write a whole book about that (forthcoming Tuesday:) #econsky #academicsky #medicine marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/05/its-...

📣Come work with me @harvard.edu ! Harvard @harvardhbs.bsky.social -RA, **CS, AI, Causal Inference, statistics** (interest in health economics a plus but not necessary), start date: the sooner the better👀 (at least now through summer), remote option alexchan.net #Econtwitter #econra #econ_ra

On Monday, we are excited to host Alex Chan from Harvard University. Alex will present: 'Opt in? Opt out?' (with Ayush Gupta and Yetong Xu). ➡️ Paper: drive.google.com/file/d/17Ojq... Looking forward to seeing you on Monday! 📉📈 #EconSky

Best abstract (economic theory) for @ashecon.bsky.social 2026 awarded to the immensely brilliant Kurt Sweat @utswtxid.bsky.social- might the first time a market design paper got honored this way Way to go Kurt! www.ashecon.org/2026-ashecon...

The translations of my book title Who Gets What and Why are now closer in the simplified and traditional Chinese character translations than they were in the first edition. #econsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/04/new-...

New Chinese edition of Who Gets What and Why

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

Here's a video of a public lecture I gave in (and a little bit about) Taiwan, yesterday. #econsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/04/mark...

Market Design and Kidney Exchange at NTHU: Public Lecture in Taiwan (video)

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

Here's a conversation about life and Moral Economics #econsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/04/mora...

Moral Economics, on the Armchair Expert podcast

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

📣Come work with me @harvard.edu @harvard.edu @harvardhbs.bsky.social -based doctoral student RA, **market design, micro theory**, start date: the sooner the better👀 (at least now through summer) - G2+, remote option AI and market design, etc. alexchan.net @vmdseminar.bsky.social

One of the big lessons of market design is that markets need social support to work well. That applies with particular force to the market for medical care, which (for its sins) isn't universally trusted. #econsky #academicsky #medicine marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/04/trus...

Trust and medicine: Marcella Alsan on Econ to Go

I post market design related news and items about repugnant markets. See my Stanford profile. I have a forthcoming book : Moral Economics The subtitle is "From Prostitution to Organ Sales, What Controversial Transactions Reveal About How Markets Work."

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

This is big news! I've been following these debates in Germany almost since I started working on legal issues surrounding kidney exchange. And Axel Ockenfels has been at the center of those debates fighting the good fight. Kudos Germany

"When a market fails here, it fails loudly." -Alex Chan on studying organ transplantation marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/03/alex...

Incentives matter. Regulation is an important part of market design. #econsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/03/alex...

“But the truth is that we already have incentives; they’re just accidental and poorly distributed.The choice isn't between market and no market. It’s between a system we design on purpose and a system that fails by accident.” @harvard.edu @harvardhbs.bsky.social www.library.hbs.edu/working-know...

Designing Incentives That Matter—Even After Death: Interview with Alex Chan | Working Knowledge

The right incentives can steer the delicate supply chain of human organs to help save more lives, says Alex Chan. He offers suggestions for how all businesses can design effective incentives that move...

library.hbs.edu

💬 Viewpoint: The CMS IOTA model incentivizes increased kidney transplants by rewarding volume, organ acceptance, and short-term graft survival, but risks remain for equitable access and long-term patient outcomes among those with end-stage kidney disease. ja.ma/4s8ZLTE

She is brilliant, she is modest, she can stage a comeback. Alysa Liu is the QUEEN. QED.

The Athletic@theathletic.com · 6mo ago

“That’s what I’m f—ing talking about!”
 Alysa Liu as she leaves the ice 🔥

The microsociology & contingency of int'l diplomacy What are the behavioral mechanisms of communications in diplomacy? How do factors exogenous to an interaction affect & inform the meaning of behavior? Intriguing questions motivate 2 book projects Seanon Wong discussed in his CASBS fellows seminar

This week’s Taboo & Repugnant Roundup: a NYT guest essay questioning whether prediction markets are dangerous, the game Organ Attack discussed on the Market Design blog, and a short HBS video on markets and transplantation featuring @alex8chan.bsky.social

Taboo and Repugnant Roundup (Week of 2/2/26)

"Dangerous" prediction markets, a game (not really) for the organ trafficker in your life, and Alex Chan on market design

tinyurl.com

Incentives matter (you get more of what you measure). marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/01/rede...

Redesigning transplant and OPO center incentives (Chan and Roth in JAMA; Bae, Sweat, Melcher and Ashlagi in JAMA Surgery)

marketdesigner.blogspot.com