# What black markets can teach us about the economy

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/think-from-kera-875208/what-black-markets-can-teach-us-about-the-economy
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/think-from-kera-875208/what-black-markets-can-teach-us-about-the-economy.md
Podcast: [Think from KERA](https://stenobird.com/podcast/think-from-kera-875208)
Published: 2026-06-02T17:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://play.prx.org/listen?ge=prx_140_fb879a04-77da-48e6-b1b4-c8e5fda4203f&uf=https%3A%2F%2Fpublicfeeds.net%2Ff%2F140%2Ffeed-rss.xml
Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/tracking.swap.fm/track/sblTq32fyWAjsHzze2LG/dovetail.prxu.org/_/140/fb879a04-77da-48e6-b1b4-c8e5fda4203f/standard.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/think-from-kera-875208/episodes/what-black-markets-can-teach-us-about-the-economy
Duration seconds: 2743

## Resource

To really understand the nuts and bolts of economics, look to the black market. Alvin E. Roth is Craig and Susan McCaw Professor of Economics at Stanford University and the George Gund Professor of Economics and Business Administration Emeritus at Harvard University. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2012. He joins host Krys Boyd to discuss his work on organ donation which led him to study what he called “repugnant transactions” like sex and drugs and why he feels banning them completely doesn’t always have the effect we think it does. His book is “ Moral Economics: From Prostitution to Organ Sales, What Controversial Transactions Reveal About How Markets Work .” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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## Transcript

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