Tyler Cowen

Tyler Cowen
Born (1962-01-21) January 21, 1962
Bergen County, New Jersey, US
Nationality American
Field Cultural economics
School or
tradition		 Neoclassical economics
Doctoral
advisor		 Thomas Schelling
Influences Chicago School;
Carl Menger; Plato.[1]

Tyler Cowen (/ˈkaʊən/; born January 21, 1962) is an American economist, who is an economics professor at George Mason University, where he holds the Holbert C. Harris chair in the economics department.[2] He hosts the economics blog, Marginal Revolution, together with co-author Alex Tabarrok. Cowen and Tabarrok also maintain the website Marginal Revolution University, a venture in online education.

Cowen writes the "Economic Scene" column for The New York Times, and since July 2016 has been a regular opinion columnist at Bloomberg View.[3] He also writes for such publications as The New Republic, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Newsweek, and the Wilson Quarterly. He serves as general director of George Mason's Mercatus Center, a university research center that focuses on the market economy.

He was ranked #72 among the "Top 100 Global Thinkers" in 2011 by Foreign Policy Magazine "for finding markets in everything."[4] In a 2011 poll of experts by The Economist, Cowen was included in the top 36 nominations of "which economists were most influential over the past decade."[5]

Education and personal life

Cowen was raised in Hillsdale, New Jersey.[6] At 15, he became the youngest ever New Jersey state chess champion.[7][8]

He graduated from George Mason University with a bachelor of science degree in economics in 1983 and received his PhD in economics from Harvard University in 1987 with his thesis titled Essays in the theory of welfare economics. At Harvard, he was mentored by game theorist Thomas Schelling, the 2005 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics. He is married to Natasha Cowen, a lawyer.

Writings

Culture

The Los Angeles Times has described Cowen as "a man who can talk about Haitian voodoo flags, Iranian cinema, Hong Kong cuisine, Abstract Expressionism, Zairian music and Mexican folk art with seemingly equal facility."[9] One of Cowen's primary research interests is the economics of culture. He has written books on fame (What Price Fame?), art (In Praise of Commercial Culture), and cultural trade (Creative Destruction: How Globalization is Changing the World's Cultures). In Markets and Cultural Voices, he relays how globalization is changing the world of three Mexican amate painters. Cowen argues that free markets change culture for the better, allowing them to evolve into something more people want. Other books include Public Goods and Market Failures, The Theory of Market Failure, Explorations in the New Monetary Economics, Risk and Business Cycles, Economic Welfare, and New Theories of Market Failure.

Books

New York Times columns

Cowen's New York Times columns cover a wide range of issues, such as the 2008 financial crisis: "Too Few Regulations? No, Just Ineffective Ones".

Dining guide

His dining guide for the DC area, "Tyler Cowen's Ethnic Dining Guide,"[12] was reprinted in the Food section of The Washington Post.

Political philosophy

Cowen has written papers on political philosophy and ethics. He co-wrote a paper with philosopher Derek Parfit arguing against the social discount rate.[13] In a 2006 paper, he argued that the epistemic problem fails to refute consequentialist forms of argument.[14]

Cowen has been described as a "libertarian bargainer" who can influence practical policy making,[15] yet he endorsed bank bailouts in his March 2, 2009 column in The New York Times.[16] In a 2007 article entitled "The Paradox of Libertarianism," Cowen argued that libertarians "should embrace a world with growing wealth, growing positive liberty, and yes, growing government. We don't have to favor the growth in government per se, but we do need to recognize that sometimes it is a package deal."

In 2012, David Brooks called Cowen "one of the most influential bloggers on the right," writing that he is among those who "start from broadly libertarian premises but do not apply them in a doctrinaire way."[17]

In an August 2014 blog post, Cowen wrote, "Just to summarize, I generally favor much more immigration but not open borders, I am a liberal on most but not all social issues, and I am market-oriented on economic issues. On most current foreign policy issues I am genuinely agnostic as to what exactly we should do but skeptical that we are doing the right thing at the moment. I don't like voting for either party or for third parties."[18]

Cowen is a social liberal who supports the state giving marriage licenses to homosexuals couples.[19]

Criticism

Fellow economists have criticized Cowen's pro-free market views. In his January 23, 2009 blog titled "Dumping on Robert Barro,"[20] Cowen challenged those who were advocating at the time more stimulus for the US economy to "cheer [him] up by [their] evidence [that stimulus works," claiming that "pro-stimulus proponents...are not putting up comparable empirical evidence of their own for the efficacy of fiscal policy and there is a reason for that, namely that the evidence isn't really there." In response, economist Bill Mitchell pointed out "the Post World War II period up until the mid-1970s."[21]

According to William K. Black, associate professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and former bank regulator, while Cowen "assumes that productivity determines personal wealth and is measured by wealth," in reality Cowen's "meritocratic vanguard caused the greatest loss of wealth to society" while "so many financial CEOs not only destroyed societal wealth, but also became wealthy through accounting control fraud."[22] Black also pointed out that Cowen along with what he calls "theoclassical economists," through their ideas, have "created such a criminogenic environment that control fraud is frequently the optimal strategy for maximizing the CEOs' self-interest."[23] In another column, Black challenged Cowen's "assumption that unrestrained self-interested actions produce a hyper-meritocracy that improves life," stating that, instead, "unrestrained self-interested actions are the primary threat to humanity."[24]

Attack

On March 26, 2014, Cowen was attacked while teaching "Law and Literature" in his classroom by Jonathan Pendleton, who tried to perform a "citizen's arrest" of Cowen and then pepper sprayed him.[25] A bystander intervened and Pendelton was detained and arrested shortly after by police. Cowen and his students reportedly suffered no lasting injuries. In Pendelton's trial, Cowen testified that his attacker believed that Cowen accused him that he "controlled his mind at a distance" and also [of] sexual harassment."[26]

Publications

Books

  • The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream. New York, NY: St. Martins Press. 2017. ISBN 1250108691.
  • Average is Over: Powering America Beyond the Age of the Great Stagnation. Dutton Adult. 2013. p. 304. ISBN 978-0-5259-5373-9. (Wikipedia page)
  • With Alex Tabarrok: Modern Principles of Economics (2 ed.). Worth Publishers. 2012. p. 900. ISBN 978-1-4292-3997-4.
  • An Economist Gets Lunch: New Rules for Everyday Foodies. New York, NY: Dutton Adult. 2012. ISBN 978-0525952664.
  • The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All the Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better. Dutton Adult. 2011. ISBN 978-0525952718.
  • Create Your Own Economy: The Path to Prosperity in a Disordered World. Dutton Adult. 2009. ISBN 0525951237.
  • Discover Your Inner Economist: Use Incentives to Fall in Love, Survive Your Next Meeting, and Motivate Your Dentist. Dutton Adult. 2007. ISBN 978-0525950257.
  • Good and Plenty: The Creative Successes of American Arts Funding. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 2006. ISBN 978-0691120423.
  • Markets and Cultural Voices: Liberty vs. Power in the Lives of Mexican Amate Painters (Economics, Cognition, and Society). University of Michigan Press. 2005. ISBN 978-0472068890.
  • Creative Destruction: How Globalization Is Changing the World's Cultures. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 2004. ISBN 978-0691117836.
  • What Price Fame?. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 2002. ISBN 978-0674008090.
  • In Praise of Commercial Culture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 2000. ISBN 978-0674001886.
  • Risk and Business Cycles: New and Old Austrian Perspectives. Psychology Press. 1998. ISBN 9780415169196.
  • Public Goods and Market Failures: A Critical Examination (2 ed.). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. 1991. ISBN 978-1560005704.

Select journal articles

  • Cowen, Tyler (December 22, 2011). "An Economic and Rational Choice Approach to the Autism Spectrum and Human Neurodiversity". GMU Working Paper in Economics. 11 (58). SSRN 1975809.
  • Cowen, Tyler (October 7, 2011). "The Microeconomics of Public Choice in Developing Economies: A Case Study of One Mexican Village". The Annual Proceedings of the Wealth and Well-being of Nations. SSRN 1940219.
  • Cowen, Tyler; Alexander Tabarrok (October 2000). "An Economic Theory of Avant-Garde and Popular Art, or High and Low Culture". Southern Economic Journal. 67 (2): 232–253. doi:10.2307/1061469. JSTOR 1061469.
  • Cowen, Tyler; Amihai Glazer; Katarina Zajc (2000). "Credibility May Require Discretion, Not Rules" (PDF). Journal of Public Economics. 76 (2): 295–306. doi:10.1016/S0047-2727(99)00051-1.
  • Cowen, Tyler (August 1997). "Should the Central Bank Target CPI Futures?" (PDF). Journal of Money, Credit and Banking. Ohio State University Press. 29 (3): 275–285. doi:10.2307/2953693.
  • Cowen, Tyler; Daniel Sutter (1997). "Politics and the Pursuit of Fame" (PDF). Public Choice. Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. 93: 19–35. doi:10.1023/A:1017939531594.
  • Cowen, T.; Robin Grier (1996). "Do Artists Suffer From A Cost Disease?" (PDF). Rationality and Society. Sage Publications. 8 (1): 5–24. doi:10.1177/104346396008001001.
  • Cowen, Tyler; Amihai Glazer (1996). "More Monitoring Can Induce Less Effort" (PDF). Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. 30: 113–123. doi:10.1016/S0167-2681(96)00845-1.
  • Cowen, Tyler; Alexander Tabarrok (April 1995). "Good Grapes and Bad Lobsters: Applying the Alchian and Allen Theorem" (PDF). Economic Inquiry. Western Economic Association International. 33 (2): 253–256. doi:10.1111/j.1465-7295.1995.tb01860.x.
  • Cowen, Tyler; Randall Kroszner (May 1989). "Scottish Banking before 1845: A Model for Laissez-Faire?". Journal of Money, Credit and Banking. 21 (2): 221–231. doi:10.2307/1992370. JSTOR 1992370.
  • Cowen, Tyler; Richard Fink (September 1985). "Inconsistent Equilibrium Constructs: The Evenly Rotating Economy of Mises and Rothbard". American Economic Review. 75 (4): 866–869. JSTOR 1821365.

Select articles

  • Cowen, Tyler (11 August 2012). "Two Prisms for Looking at China's Problems". New York Times.
  • Cowen, Tyler (16 June 2012). "Broken Trust Takes Time to Mend". New York Times.
  • "What Export-Oriented America Means". The American Interest. May–June 2012. Archived from the original on October 21, 2013.
  • "Six Rules for Dining Out". Atlantic Magazine. May 2012.
  • "6 Ideas for the Ash Heap of History". Foreign Policy. November 28, 2011. Archived from the original on August 16, 2012. Retrieved September 12, 2012.
  • "The Inequality That Matters". The American Interest. January–February 2011. Archived from the original on October 21, 2013.
  • "The Lack of Wars May Be Hurting Economic Growth"- NYTimes, June 14, 2014

References

  1. ↑ Illing, Sean (June 3, 2017). "9 questions for Tyler Cowen". Vox Media. Archived from the original on June 5, 2017. Who is the person who has most influenced the way you think? [...] More proximately, I would cite economics as a discipline and Plato's dialogic method for philosophy
  2. ↑ "Cowen Named Holbert Harris Chair". The Mason Gazette. George Mason University. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
  3. ↑ Tyler Cowen, columnist Bloomberg
  4. ↑ "The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers (#72 Tyler Cowan:For finding markets in everything)". Foreign Policy. December 2011. Archived from the original on April 16, 2012. Retrieved March 21, 2012.
  5. ↑ "Economics' most influential people". Economist.com. February 1, 2011. Retrieved 2012-06-30.
  6. ↑ Rosenwald, Michael S. "Tyler Cowen's appetite for ethnic food -- and answers about his life", The Washington Post, May 13, 2010. Accessed November 2, 2017. "Cowen is 48. He grew up in Hillsdale, N.J., an hour's drive from New York."
  7. ↑ "Interview with the Former "Youngest New Jersey Chess Champion," Tyler Cowen". Kenilworthchessclub.org. 2006-09-08. Retrieved 2012-06-30.
  8. ↑ New Jersey State Champions 1946 – Present New Jersey State Chess Federation, Official Site
  9. ↑ The joy of thinking globally, February 7, 2003, Daniel Akst, Los Angeles Times
  10. ↑ Cowen, Tyler (2012-04-12). "Penny Pleasance in The New York Journal of Books". New York Journal of Books. Retrieved 2012-06-30.
  11. ↑ Tyler Cowen (28 February 2017). The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-1-250-10869-2.
  12. ↑ Tyler Cowen Ethnic Dining Guide
  13. ↑ "Against the social discount rate" by Derek Parfit and Tyler Cowen, in Peter Laslett & James S. Fishkin (eds.) Justice between age groups and generations, Yale University Press: New Haven, 1992, pp. 144–161.
  14. ↑ "The Epistemic Problem Does Not Refute Consequentialism" by Tyler Cowen, Utilitas (2006), 18: 383–399
  15. ↑ Klein, Daniel B. "Mere Libertarianism: Blending Hayek and Rothbard Archived May 29, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.". Reason Papers. Vol. 27: Fall 2004.
  16. ↑ Cowen, Tyler (March 1, 2009). "Message to Regulators: Bank Fix Needed Quickly". New York Times.
  17. ↑ Brooks, David (2012-11-19). "The Conservative Future". New York Times. Retrieved 28 November 2012.
  18. ↑ Cowen, Tyler (4 August 2014). "Matt Yglesias on Tyler Cowen". Marginal Revolution. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  19. ↑ Cowen, Tyler (9 April 2009). "A Bayesian approach to legal gay marriage". Marginal Revolution. Text "https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/04/blogging-gay-marriage.html" ignored (help); |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  20. ↑ "Dumping on Robert Barro" by Tyler Cowen, January 23, 2009
  21. ↑ "Fiscal policy worked – evidence" by Bill Mitchell, May 27, 2010
  22. ↑ "The “Hyper-meritocracy” – an Oxymoron Led by Criminal Morons" by William K. Black, October 4, 2013<
  23. ↑ "Bank Failures are “Inconceivable” under the Latest Neoclassical Fantasy" by William K. Black, October 6, 2013
  24. ↑ "The Faux Hyper-Meritocracy that Threatens to Destroy Us" by William K. Black, October 8, 2013
  25. ↑ Attack:
    Greenwood, Arin (2014-03-27). "Tyler Cowen Pepper Sprayed While Teaching Law School Class On Vigilantism". Huffington Post.
    McNeal, Greg (2014-03-27). "Law Professor Pepper Sprayed During Class By Man Demanding A 'Citizen's Arrest'". Forbes.
    Weiner, Rachel (April 29, 2014). "Tyler Cowen's attacker thought the professor was controlling his mind, Cowen testifies". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 29, 2014.
  26. ↑ Weiner, Rachel (April 29, 2014). "Tyler Cowen's attacker asccused the professor was controlling his mind, Cowen testifies". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 29, 2014.
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