Good markets (really do) make good neighbors

Abstract

This article gives a (very) brief exposition of what market design is, along with four examples of market design in action. Loosely themed after Robert Frost's poem "Mending Wall," the examples demonstrate ways in which market design can break barriers---physical, political, and/or metaphorical. Each example also illustrates one of four broader classes of ways that market design can create positive change: marketplace mechanism (re-)design, information provision, (re-)shaping the extensive margin, and market(place) creation.