The Marginal Revolution Podcast
Marginal Revolution has been one of the most influential economics blogs in the world for over two decades thanks to its sharp economic analysis and thought-provoking ideas. Now, co-creators Alex Tabarrok and Tyler Cowen are bringing their nerdy winsomeness to your earbuds. Each episode features Alex and Tyler drawing on their decades of academic expertise to tackle whatever economic idea is currently tickling their noggins.
Episodes
America's Debt: Crisis or Calm?
Can America afford $30 trillion in debt—or is the real question whether it wants to? In the final episode of Season 2, Alex and Tyler take on the growing mountain of federal debt—now equal to 100% of GDP, with interest payments alone rivaling national defense spending. Alex lays out the case for concern: rising obligations, off-balance-sheet liabilities for Social Security and Medicare, and a po
The Return of Tariffs - Unpacking incidence, retaliation, and the return of protectionism
In this episode, Alex and Tyler tackle the resurgence of tariffs in American policy, a development neither saw coming after decades of trade liberalization. They unpack the economics of who really pays when tariffs jump from 2.4% to 18% in a matter of weeks, exploring everything from tax incidence and exchange rate adjustments to the question of why we treat tariffs so differently from currency de
Compensating Differentials and Selective Incentives
Why do butchers earn more than bakers even though they're typically less educated? What does Uber driver data reveal about wage gaps? In part three of their series on favorite models, Tyler and Alex explore compensating differentials, Adam Smith's insight that wages adjust for a job's pleasantness, safety, and flexibility. But Tyler pushes back: in a world of increasing returns and clustering tale
The Baumol Effect
Why are college tuition, healthcare, and car repairs eating up bigger shares of our budgets? Alex says it's all about the Baumol effect, a deep economic insight about relative prices that explains why labor-intensive services inevitably become more expensive over time. Tyler isn't buying it. He thinks the Baumol effect is often invoked as an ex-post explanation but can't make predictions. Further,
Favorite Models: Spence on Monopolies, Harberger on Incidence, Solow on Growth
Alex and Tyler put three classic models through their paces. Alex starts with Spence on how a monopolist chooses quality and applies it to how the New York Times' paywall flipped its audience incentives. Tyler pushes back, arguing that network effects and loyalists matter more than marginal customers. They move to Harberger on tax incidence and the hidden winners and losers of corporate taxes, min
In Praise of Commercial Culture
Tyler and Alex revisit Tyler's 1998 book and trace how commerce disciplines and amplifies creativity. Great artists bargained hard because money buys orchestras and time. "Inspired consumption" means high-quality audiences shape better art. Dynamic, Hayekian competition discovers new genres, while pulp cross-subsidizes the sublime. They disentangle when government support works, why TV improved wi
The Quest to Price Options
In the final episode of Season 1, Alex and Tyler explore one of the most consequential quests in the history of economics and finance: the decades-long search for a formula to price options. From Louis Bachelier's groundbreaking work in 1900 to the eventual triumph of Black, Scholes, and Merton in the 1970s, they trace how brilliant minds across mathematics, physics, and economics gradually unlock
The New Monetary Economics
In this exploration of the "new monetary economics," Alex and Tyler revisit the ideas of thinkers like Fischer Black, Eugene Fama, and Robert Hall, whose bold views about the Fed and the money supply once seemed detached from reality but now increasingly describe the financial world we inhabit. They explore why traditional measures like the money supply are becoming obsolete, how crypto and stable
The Economics of Insurance
In this episode, Alex and Tyler dive deep into the fascinating and often misunderstood world of insurance, exploring how this trillion-dollar industry underpins modern economies while shaping human behavior in surprising ways. From its ancient roots in maritime adventures to the revolutionary development of life insurance, they unravel the economic logic and social norms that made this market poss
The 1970s Crime Wave
In this final installment of their series on the 1970s, Alex and Tyler turn to the social upheaval and crime wave that marked the decade as one of America's most turbulent. They explore how rising crime rates transformed cities, fueled a national sense of fear, and led to far-reaching policy shifts, including mass incarceration and changes in urban policing. From the shocking statistics on homicid
Oil Shocks, Price Controls, and War
In this second installment of their three-part series on the 1970s, Alex and Tyler unravel the economic and geopolitical forces behind the oil shocks that upended global global markets, triggered economic crises, and forced a dramatic reshaping of U.S. energy policy. Along the way, they debate whether the shocks ultimately led to long-term benefits like the rise of alternative energy and the frack
The Economics Nobel: Predictions, Missed Opportunities, and Questionable Winners
Alex and Tyler share their predictions for the upcoming Nobel Prize in economics, considering potential winners like Michael Woodford for monetary theory, Susan Athey for her bringing machine learning , and Ariel Pakes for industrial organization. They reflect on overlooked economists such as Robert Barro, Richard Posner, Gordon Tullock, Armen Alchian, and Anthony Downs, while also highlighting th
1970s Inflation: The Economic Fever That Changed America
Welcome The Marginal Revolution Podcast! In the Season 1 premiere, Alex and Tyler kick off a 3-part series on the 1970s by exploring the decade's defining economic challenge: rampant inflation. They debate the factors behind the inflationary surge, from Keynesian spending policies to the collapse of Bretton Woods to contentious Fed policies. They end by drawing parallels to modern times, questioni
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