University Calendar

Economics Colloquium: "Baby Markets: Thinking the Unthinkable in International Adoption"

Presenters: Mark Montgomery and Irene Powell, Grinnell College

Adoption laws, national and international, outlaw payments to families for relinquishing their children. This does not stop "baby selling," but rather moves it into the hands of criminals. History suggests that restricting mutually beneficial exchanges can make worse the problems it is supposed to solve. Is it time to think the unthinkable in international adoption?

The talk examines how current adoption laws create incentives for fraud and other forms of abuse, identifies "moral hazards" abuse created by the legal structure of adoption, and explores how relaxing restrictions on compensating birth mothers would change incentives and behavior of birth parents, adoptive parents and adoption facilitators.

*This talk was originally scheduled for May 30*

Location:	Thomas Steitz Hall of Science 102 - Lecture Hall
Sponsor:	ECON Dept
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