Annual Review of Economics

Organ Allocation and Transplantation

2026-06-08

There is a large shortage of solid organs for transplants. This survey reviews the allocation of organs (particularly kidneys), with an emphasis on how deceased donor organs are obtained and allocated in the United States but with pointers to related issues involving living donors and transplantation around the world. We review some of the key institutional details and theoretical and empirical studies and describe some open questions that we hope will continue to attract attention from researchers interested in the economic and operational aspects of organ allocation.

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DOI https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-economics-092425-123425