2018年经济学人 自由交流:利益交易无需考虑“道德问题”?(1)

 

At the AEA conference Alvin Roth, a Nobel prizewinner, delivered a lecture on his life-saving work in the field of market design.

在AEA会议上，诺贝尔奖得主艾尔文·罗斯就他在市场设计领域中拯救生命的工作发表了演讲。

To donate an organ, one must share a blood-type with the recipient¹.

要捐献器官，必须与受赠人共用一种血型。

Someone who would be willing to donate a kidney to a friend or family member might be stymied² by a difference in blood-type.

一个愿意捐肾给朋友或家人的人可能会因血型不同而受到阻碍。

Mr Roth circumvented³ this problem by developing matching markets, in which one person donates to a compatible stranger

罗斯先生通过发展配对市场来回避这个问题，在这个市场中，一个人向一个合适的陌生人捐赠，

and in turn receives another stranger’s compatible organ for use by the donor’s ailing⁴ loved-one.

而另一个人反过来会接受另一个陌生人的兼容器官，以供捐赠人生病的爱人使用。

Such swap⁵ groups can include scores of donors⁶ and recipients⁷, who might otherwise have died awaiting a transplant.

这样的交换团体可以包括许多捐赠人和受助人，否则他们可能会死于等待移植。

Yet demand for healthy organs vastly outstrips⁸ supply.

然而，对健康器官的需求远远超过了供给。

Were it legal to buy and sell organs, many more people might donate, helping⁹ to alleviate¹⁰ the deadly shortage.

如果买卖器官合法，更多的人可能会捐赠，帮助缓解致命的短缺。

Moral qualms¹¹ generally discourage governments from legalising the trade.

道德上的不安通常会阻碍政府将这项交易合法化。

This is an example of what Mr Roth calls a “repugnant market”, one which is constrained¹² by popular distaste or moral unease.

这是罗斯先生所谓“令人厌恶的市场”的一个例子，这种市场受到普遍厌恶或道德不安的限制。

Repugnance¹³, he laments¹⁴, tilts¹⁵ the political playing field against ideas that unlock the gains from trade.

他哀叹道，反对将交易收益从交易中解放出来的想法，使政治上的竞争变得更加激烈。

He recommends that economists¹⁶ spend more time thinking about such taboos¹⁷, but mostly because they are a constraint¹⁸ on the use of markets in new contexts.

他建议经济学家们花更多时间思考这些禁忌，但主要是因为它们是在新语境下运用市场的限制。

These social rules also contain insights.

这些社会规则也包含了深刻的洞见。

In a paper discussing the organ trade Nicola Lacetera, of the University of Toronto,

多伦多大学的尼古拉·Lacetera在一篇探讨器官交易的论文中指出，

argues that there may be important reasons for moral objections to repugnant activity, and costs to abandoning such objections.

道德上反对令人厌恶的活动，及放弃这种反对意见的成本，可能是有重要原因的。

1 recipient   

a.接受的,感受性强的 n.接受者,感受者,容器

参考例句：

• Please check that you have a valid email certificate for each recipient. 请检查是否对每个接收者都有有效的电子邮件证书。
• Colombia is the biggest U . S aid recipient in Latin America. 哥伦比亚是美国在拉丁美洲最大的援助对象。

2 stymied   

n.被侵袭的v.妨碍，阻挠( stymie的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Relief efforts have been stymied in recent weeks by armed gunmen. 最近几周的救援工作一直受到武装分子的阻挠。 来自辞典例句
• I was completely stymied by her refusal to help. 由于她拒不相助， 我完全陷入了困境。 来自互联网

3 circumvented   

v.设法克服或避免（某事物），回避( circumvent的过去式和过去分词 )；绕过，绕行，绕道旅行

参考例句：

• By such means the ban against dancing was circumvented. 这样，舞蹈就不至于被禁止。 来自英汉非文学 - 民俗
• It can therefore be circumvented by address manipulation and explicit type conversion. 因而可以通过地址操纵和显式型别转换来绕过此保护功能。 来自互联网

4 ailing   

v.生病

参考例句：

• They discussed the problems ailing the steel industry. 他们讨论了困扰钢铁工业的问题。
• She looked after her ailing father. 她照顾有病的父亲。

5 swap   

n.交换；vt.交换，用...作交易

参考例句：

• I will swap you my bicycle for your radio.我想拿我的自行车换你的收音机。
• This comic was a swap that I got from Nick.这本漫画书是我从尼克那里换来的。

6 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 recipients   

adj.接受的；受领的；容纳的；愿意接受的n.收件人；接受者；受领者；接受器

参考例句：

• The recipients of the prizes had their names printed in the paper. 获奖者的姓名登在报上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The recipients of prizes had their names printed in the paper. 获奖者名单登在报上。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

8 outstrips   

v.做得比…更好，（在赛跑等中）超过( outstrip的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Technology daily outstrips the ability of our institutions to cope with its fruits. 技术发展的速度超过了我们的制度所能应付其成果的程度。 来自辞典例句
• The significance of the foreign exchange market outstrips its impressive size. 外汇市场的意义超出了它给人的印象尺度。 来自互联网

9 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

10 alleviate   

v.减轻，缓和，缓解(痛苦等)

参考例句：

• The doctor gave her an injection to alleviate the pain.医生给她注射以减轻疼痛。
• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。

11 qualms   

n.不安；内疚

参考例句：

• He felt no qualms about borrowing money from friends.他没有对于从朋友那里借钱感到不安。
• He has no qualms about lying.他撒谎毫不内疚。

12 constrained   

adj.束缚的,节制的

参考例句：

• The evidence was so compelling that he felt constrained to accept it. 证据是那样的令人折服，他觉得不得不接受。
• I feel constrained to write and ask for your forgiveness. 我不得不写信请你原谅。

13 repugnance   

n.嫌恶

参考例句：

• He fought down a feelings of repugnance.他抑制住了厌恶感。
• She had a repugnance to the person with whom she spoke.她看不惯这个和她谈话的人。

14 laments   

n.悲恸，哀歌，挽歌( lament的名词复数 )v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• In the poem he laments the destruction of the countryside. 在那首诗里他对乡村遭到的破坏流露出悲哀。
• In this book he laments the slight interest shown in his writings. 在该书中他慨叹人们对他的著作兴趣微弱。 来自辞典例句

15 tilts   

（意欲赢得某物或战胜某人的）企图，尝试( tilt的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• As the kitten touches it, it tilts at the floor. 它随着击碰倾侧，头不动，眼不动，还呆呆地注视着地上。 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译
• The two writers had a number of tilts in print. 这两位作家写过一些文章互相攻击。

16 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 taboos   

禁忌( taboo的名词复数 )； 忌讳； 戒律； 禁忌的事物（或行为）

参考例句：

• She was unhorsed by fences, laws and alien taboos. 她被藩蓠、法律及外来的戒律赶下了马。
• His mind was charged with taboos. 他头脑里忌讳很多。

18 constraint   

n.(on)约束，限制；限制(或约束)性的事物

参考例句：

• The boy felt constraint in her presence.那男孩在她面前感到局促不安。
• The lack of capital is major constraint on activities in the informal sector.资本短缺也是影响非正规部门生产经营的一个重要制约因素。