Repugnant market

A repugnant market is a term used to describe an area of commerce that is considered by society to be outside of the range of market transactions and that bringing this area into the realm of a market would be inherently immoral or uncaring. For example, many people consider a market in human organs to be a repugnant market or the ability to bet on terrorist acts in prediction market to be repugnant. Meanwhile, many people consider "lack" of such markets to be immoral and uncaring because trade bans (e.g. in organ transplants [cite blog | url = http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/murphy-s1.html | title = I’ll Give You My Heart... | last = Murphy | first = Stephanie | date = 2005-01-01 | accessdate = 2008-07-08 ] [cite news| url = http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=419 | title = The AMA’s Opposition to Organ Markets: Time for a Change | last = Kaserman | first = David | date = 2002-05-16 | accessdate = 2008-07-08 ] [cite news| url = http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_pwwi/is_200805/ai_n25416885 | title = Audience Chooses Market Solution to Organ Shortage in Final Intelligence Squared U.S. Debate of the Season | date = 2008-05 | accessdate = 2008-07-08 ] and terrorism information [cite journal | url = http://www.ccc.nps.navy.mil/si/sept03/terrorism.asp | title = DARPA's Policy Analysis Market for Intelligence: Outside the Box or Off the Wall? | last = Looney | first = Robert | date = 2003-09 | accessdate = 2008-07-08 | journal = Strategic Insights | volume = II] [cite journal | url = http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1162/itgg.2007.2.3.73
title = The Policy Analysis Market A Thwarted Experiment in the Use of Prediction Markets for Public Policy | last = Hanson | first = Robin | date = 2007-07 | accessdate = 2008-07-08 | journal = MIT Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization. | volume = 2 | issue = 3] ) create avoidable human suffering.

Examples

The repugnance of markets varies according to time and culture. Slavery is a market currently considered repugnant while for much of recorded history it was considered very lucrative and acceptable. Examples of markets considered repugnant at one time or place include:

* Adoption and surrogacy (legal in India and most states in the U.S., but banned in the remaining, Australia, France and Japan) [cite news | url = http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/world/asia/10surrogate.html | title = India Nurtures Business of Surrogate Motherhood | publisher = The New York Times | last = Gentleman | first = A | date = 2008-03-10 | accessdate = 2008-05-15 ]
* Advertising for tobacco and alcohol
* Birth control
* Cadavers
* Citizenship and/or immigration [cite journal | url = http://www.nber.org/papers/w12315 | title = People Flows in Globalization | date = 2006-06-01 | last = Freeman | first = RB | accessdate = 2008-05-15 | journal = NBER Working Paper | volume = 12315 ] (Investor visas such as the U.S. E-2 visa are exceptions. Several notable economists have proposed selling citizenship [cite journal | url = http://www.chicagogsb.edu/magazine/30/2/cover.aspx | title = Citizenship for Sale? | date = 2008-06-07 | last = Houlihan | first = Patricia | accessdate = 2008-08-08 | journal = Chicago GSB Magazine ] )
* Currency speculation
* Egg donation for research purposes
* Employment agencies (recruiters, headhunters)
* Gambling
* Illegal drug trade
* Life insurance
* Meat of horses or dogs in California [cite journal | url = http://kuznets.fas.harvard.edu/~aroth/papers/Repugnance.pdf | title = Repugnance as a Constraint on Markets | last = Roth | first = AE | format = pdf | year = 2007 | volume = 21 | issue = 3 | journal = Journal of Economic Perspectives | accessdate = 2008-05-15 | pages = 37-58 ]
* Metered parking [cite news | url = http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118574808780081653.html?mod=hps_us_editors_picks | title = When Parallel Parking Was New and Meters Seemed Un-American | publisher = The Wall Street Journal | last = Crossen | first = C | date = 2007-06-30 | accessdate = 2008-05-15]
* Military mercenaries
* Organ trade and organ donation from a live donor (Turkey and the Philippines are notable exceptions [cite news | url = http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/16/magazine/16kidney-t.html | title = Desperately Seeking a Kidney | publisher = The New York Times | last = Satel | first = S | date = 2007-12-16 (subscription only)] [cite web | url = http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9273 | title = Organ Sales and Moral Travails: Lessons from the Living Kidney Vendor Program in Iran | publisher = Cato Institute | last = Hippen | first = BE | date = 2008-03-20 | accessdate = 2008-05-15] [cite web | url = http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/human-organs-for-sale-legally-in-which-country/?hp | title = Human Organs for Sale, Legally, in ... Which Country? | last = Dubner | first = SJ | publisher = The New York Times Freakonomics Blog | date = 2008-04-29 | accessdate = 2008-05-15] }
* Payola
* Pornography (still repugnant in some countries/cultures)
* Certain prediction markets (e.g. 'terrorism futures market')
* Product placement in some European countries [cite web | url = http://economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10064059 | title = In the picture | publisher = The Economist | date = 2007-11-01 | accessdate 2008-05-15]
* Prohibition of alcoholic beverages
* Prostitution
* Real estate in Cuba [cite news | url = http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/28/world/americas/28cuba.html | title = With a Whisper, Cuba’s Housing Market Booms | publisher = The New York Times | last = Lacey | first = M | accessdate = 2008-05-15 | date = 2008-01-28 ]
* Selling short
* Slavery or indentured servitude
* Ticket touting in sports events and concerts
* Usury (historically in Christian countries)
* Vote buying [cite web | url = http://www.stanford.edu/~albertod/docs/Bellagio_Schaffer_Schedler.pdf | title = What is Vote Buying? The Limits of the Market Model | last = Schaffer | first = FC | coauthors = Schedler A | publisher = Stanford University, Department of Political Science | accessdate = 2008-05-15 | format = pdf | date = 2005-11-28]

References

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/programmes/analysis/transcripts/12_07_07.txt Transcript of BBC broadcast on repugnant markets]
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8717497583686568676 Google video on Market Failure and Market Design]