Alvin Roth Sees Plenty Of Ways Economics Can Make A difference in people's lives. In contrast with the authors of bestselling books like Freakonomics, who are fascinated by obscure but intriguing questions like how to detect cheating by sumo wrestlers, Roth relishes real-world challenges. "Some say economics has all kinds of good tools and techniques, but it has an absence of interesting problems," notes Roth, 58, who holds a joint appointment in the Harvard economics department and the business school. "I look around the world, and I see all kinds of interesting, important problems we ought to solve with the tools we have."
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