Kidney exchange: mechanism design approach and the case of Turkey

Abstract

Kidney exchange: Mechanism design approach and the case of Turkey the preferred treatment for most of the kidney diseases is transplantation. a kidney patient can receive a transplant either from live donors or from deceased donors. a transplant is possible only if there is no medical incompatibility between the patient and the donor, otherwise the kidney of the donor is not utilized and the patient goes to the waiting list for cadaveric kidneys. Since there are not enough donors, the priority of the transplantation centers is to develop mechanisms in order to avoid such loss of kidney resources. We focus on a particular mechanism, priority mechanism, by analyzing it in the context of kidney exchange in Turkey. We theoretically compare this mechanism under the current system of independent transplantation centers and the system of centralized exchange. We argue that a centralized exchange mechanism increases the welfare of the patients and it is crucial to switch to the centralized system.