# Why markets fail — and how to fix them (ft. Nobel  economist Alvin Roth)

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/a16z-crypto-show-5434524/why-markets-fail-and-how-to-fix-them-ft-nobel-economist-alvin-roth
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/a16z-crypto-show-5434524/why-markets-fail-and-how-to-fix-them-ft-nobel-economist-alvin-roth.md
Podcast: [a16z crypto show](https://stenobird.com/podcast/a16z-crypto-show-5434524)
Published: 2026-07-14T17:13:22+00:00
Episode link: https://web3-with-a16z.simplecast.com/episodes/first-principles-with-alvin-roth-G1DOOVcR
Audio file: https://mgln.ai/e/1344/afp-848985-injected.calisto.simplecastaudio.com/bf52be5a-9faf-45fb-9bc3-bb4270ec53d9/episodes/1661b0d9-9d7b-48a5-aa74-0d3b83b33e88/audio/128/default.mp3?aid=rss_feed&awCollectionId=bf52be5a-9faf-45fb-9bc3-bb4270ec53d9&awEpisodeId=1661b0d9-9d7b-48a5-aa74-0d3b83b33e88&feed=XPOpH7r4
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Duration seconds: 5125

## Resource

Long before crypto made coordination programmable, Nobel Prize winner Alvin Roth was designing markets where coordination could save lives. In this episode of First Principles, Roth tells the story of how he helped build systems for some of the hardest matching problems in the world, from where doctors train and where students go to school to how kidney donors can reach the patients who need them.

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## Transcript

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