Alvin E Roth Biography

Born on December 18, 1951, Alvin Elliot Roth is the Nobel Prize winner in Economics Sciences with Lloyd Shapely. Roth has made significant contributions to the fields of experimental economics, game theory, and market design. He is the professor of economics at Stanford University and the professor of business and economics administration at Harvard University.

EARLY YEARS

Alvin was born in New York City. In 1971, he graduated from the Columbia University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science with a bachelor’s degree in Operations Research. After his graduation, he received his Master’s and Ph.D. in Operations Research in 1973 and 1974 respectively from Stanford University. He went on to teach at the University of Illinois after leaving Stanford.

To become the professor of economics at the University of Pittsburgh, he left the University of Illinois in 1982. While Alvin was at Pittsburgh, he served the university’s Center for Philosophy of Science. He also served the Katz Graduate School of Business as a professor. In 1998 he left Pittsburgh and joined at Harvard. He is also a member of the Econometric Society and the National Bureau of Economic Research. In 2013, he shared a Golden Goose Award with David and Shapley. They were awarded for their work on market design.

CAREER & HIS CONTRIBUTIONS

Roth is also involved in the field of market design, experimental economics, and game theory. He also helped to redesign mechanisms for selecting Boston primary schools, New York City high schools and medical residents. His 1984 paper on the NRMP (National Resident Matching Program) spotlighted the system designed by F. J. Mullen and John Stalknaker in 1952. The system was started on theoretical foundations, solo introduced by Lloyd Shapley and David Gale in 1962. He proved that the National Resident Matching Program was both strategy-proof and stable for single residents but adjourned to future study the question of how to match married couples productively. To ensure stable matches even with married couples, Roth redesigned the matching programming in 1999. He also designed the market to equivalent New York City public school students to high schools as an undergraduate.

Alvin is the founder of a registry and matching program that pairs congruous kidney donors and recipients, the New England Program for Kidney Exchange. Utku Unver and Tayfun Sonmez are also the founders of the program. The main goal of the program was to operate primarily through the use of two pairs of unsuited donors. Each donor was irreconcilable with her partner but could be reconcilable with another donor who was likewise irreconcilable with his partner.

PERSONAL LIFE

Roth is happily married. His elder son name is Aaron Roth, who works at the University of Pennsylvania as a professor of computer science. His younger son’s name is Ben Roth. He is an economics graduate student at MIT. In 2001, he released his book “Game Theory in the Tradition of Bob Wilson”. He released his book “Who Gets What and Why” in 2015.

• Professor