Minimalist Market Design: A Framework for Economists with Policy Aspirations

Résumé 0

Earlier in my career, prevalent approaches in the emerging field of market design largely represented the experiences and perspectives of leaders who were commissioned to design or reform various institutions. Since being commissioned for a similar task seemed unlikely for me as an aspiring design economist, I developed my own minimalist approach to market design. Using the policy objectives of stakeholders, my approach creates a new institution from the existing one with minimal interference with its elements that compromise the objectives. Minimalist market design initially evolved through my integrated research and policy efforts in school choice from 1997 to 2005 and in kidney exchange from 2003 to 2007. Given its success in school choice and kidney exchange, I systematically followed this approach in many other, often unusual real-world settings. In recent years, my efforts in minimalist market design led to the 2021 reform of the US Army's branching system for its cadets to military specialties, the adoption of reserve systems during the Covid-19 pandemic for vaccine allocation in 15 states and therapies in 2 states, and the deployment of a highly efficient liver exchange system in T\"urkiye. This same methodology also predicted the rescission of a 1995 Supreme Court judgment in India, resulting in countless litigations and interruptions of public recruitment for 25 years, as well as the mandates of its replacement. In this monograph, I describe the philosophy, evolution, and successful applications of minimalist market design, contrasting it with the mainstream paradigm for the field. In doing so, I also provide a paradigm for economists who want to influence policy and change institutions through their research.