Tyler Cowen

Tyler Cowen is general director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and holds the Holbert C. Harris Chair of Economics at George Mason University. He also serves on the Mercatus Center's Board of Directors.

Dr. Cowen studied economics at George Mason University and received his PhD from Harvard in 1987. He worked until 1989 as an assistant and associate professor of economics at the University of California, Irvine and then returned to George Mason, where in 1998 he was named general director of both the Mercatus Center and George Mason’s James M. Buchanan Center for Political Economy.  In 2000, Dr. Cowen was named the Holbert C. Harris Chair of Economics.

A dedicated writer, Dr. Cowen has published dozens of books, reviews, and articles.  His most recent book, Markets and Cultural Voices, explains the effect that globalization has had on the lives of Mexican Amate artists.  In his 2002 book Creative Destruction, he explores the economics of multiculturalism.  What Price Fame?, published in 2000, also plays on Cowen’s love of culture, both pop and classical, revealing the economic implications of today’s fame-driven culture.  In his 1998 book, In Praise of Commercial Culture, he looks at the relationship between art and market forces through history. 

Dr. Cowen also has edited multiple works, including the volume of Public Goods and Market Failures, Economic Welfare, and New Theories of Market Failure.  He co-authored the 1994 book Explorations in the New Monetary Economics with Randall Kroszner. 

Links to Dr. Cowen’s writings, his acclaimed “Ethnic Dining Guide” to Washington, DC, and his vita can be found on his personal web page.

Dr. Cowen resides in Fairfax, Virginia, with his wife and stepdaughter.  He writes daily for his web log with colleague Alex Tabarrok – The Marginal Revolution.

Resources by Tyler Cowen

Discover Your Inner Economist

Creative Destruction