Book Review: Who gets What and Why: The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design

To be sure, Brennan and Jaworski explicitly set aside the question of whether some things that shouldn’t be possessed might still be permissibly bought and sold. They write, ‘even if there are goods and services that ought not be possessed in the first place, it’s an open, empirical questions whether commodifying those goods and services might improve upon the status quo… Examining just when this is so goes beyond the scope of our book’ (18). If this expresses willingness to reject the Principle of Wrongful Possession, then I am encouraged by it.