A Time-Series Analysis of U.S. Kidney Transplantation and the Waiting List: Donor Substitution Effects and "Dirty Altruism"

This paper provides an econometric analysis of the relationship between live and deceased (cadaveric) kidney donations for the United States for the period 1992:IV through 2006:II. Statistical analysis shows that increases in deceased donor transplants reduce future live donor grafts, controlling for both waiting list effects and exogenous trends. This result has important, and potentially dire, implications for efforts to reduce the organ shortage by increasing use of cadaver donors.