Introduction
Al and Itay are working on projects that overlap and complete each other in interesting ways. For many years, Al has studied the behavior of various labor markets and shown how proper marketplace design can improve these markets. One of these markets, the market for new gastroenterologists, suffered from unraveling, the hiring of workers far in advance of employment. One of the things that Al and Muriel Niederle (a 2002 Harvard PhD) observed is that, when the market unraveled, the national market broke down into numerous local markets.
Itay takes a social networks approach to further explore the phenomenon of early hiring in this market. Together, the cumulative knowledge from Al's work combined with the new tools that Itay is developing to apply to the problem extend our understanding of labor market activity, of market failures, and of how to fix them.
Our Research
Al: In my conversations with Itay we have tried to understand better the patterns observed in the activity of the market for gastroenterology fellows. This is a market which Muriel Niederle and I started studying when she was a PhD student, and for which we helped design new marketplace rules that have been successfully used for a few years now. Itay brings a new approach to understanding when and how markets like this can fail, and what is required for them to succeed.
Itay: Al and I have discussed ways in which new tools from graph theory and new insights from the literature on social networks can shed light on observations made by the market design literature.
The Collaborative Process
Al: Different students are different, and my work with students depends as much on their style as on mine. Itay is a creative guy who has benefitted from the fact that our research group drinks coffee and talks a lot. So early on he understood some of the problems that people are working on, and where they had made progress and where they were stumped. He jumped in where he saw an important problem that could be illuminated with the new network theory tools he's developing. My role has mostly been as a sounding board.
Itay: Al has been supportive from day one. He is always accessible and encourages formal and informal interactions. He gathers around him a community of researchers with similar interests and with different approaches and abilities. In this open environment, students are encouraged to express their ideas and explore new and innovative paths.
Al shares his tremendous experience, and at the same time is open to new ideas and very different approaches. His guidance has helped me to explore the market for new gastroenterologists and gain better understanding of approaches for market design. At the same time, I was encouraged to try non-conservative approaches. As a result I could better direct my research at questions that could potentially lead to better market design some day.