# Tyler Cowen

> Tyler Cowen is an American economist, author, and public intellectual who has turned relentless curiosity into a public utility. He is the Holbert L. Harris Professor of Economics at George Mason University and chairman of the Mercatus Center, the co-author of the long-running economics blog Marginal Revolution, the host of the Conversations with Tyler podcast, and the founder of Emergent Ventures, a grant program that has funded more than 1,000 ambitious people worldwide. Across books like The Great Stagnation, Stubborn Attachments, and Talent, he argues that sustained economic growth is a moral imperative and that the rarest resource of all is context.

- **Role:** Holbert L. Harris Professor of Economics at George Mason University and Chairman of the Mercatus Center
- **Organizations:** George Mason University, Mercatus Center, Marginal Revolution, Marginal Revolution University, Emergent Ventures, Conversations with Tyler
- **From:** Bergen County, New Jersey, USA
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.S. in Economics, George Mason University, Ph.D. in Economics (advisor Thomas Schelling), Harvard University
- **Known for:** Co-author of Marginal Revolution, one of the world's most-read economics blogs, posting daily since 2003, Founder of Emergent Ventures, which has funded more than 1,000 social entrepreneurs and researchers worldwide, Creator of Fast Grants, which raised more than $50 million and awarded 260 grants for COVID-19 research

## Career timeline

- **1977** — Becomes the youngest New Jersey state chess champion at age 15
- **1987** — Earns Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard and joins the George Mason University faculty
- **1998** — Publishes In Praise of Commercial Culture
- **2003** — Co-founds the Marginal Revolution blog with Alex Tabarrok
- **2011** — Publishes The Great Stagnation; named to Foreign Policy's Top 100 Global Thinkers
- **2012** — Co-creates Marginal Revolution University (MRU) free economics education
- **2015** — Launches the Conversations with Tyler podcast
- **2018** — Founds Emergent Ventures with a Thiel Foundation grant; publishes Stubborn Attachments
- **2020** — Creates Fast Grants for COVID-19 research; coins state capacity libertarianism
- **2022** — Publishes Talent with Daniel Gross
- **2025** — Begins a column at The Free Press; named to the inaugural TIME100 Philanthropy list

## Achievements

- Co-author of Marginal Revolution, one of the world's most-read economics blogs, posting daily since 2003
- Founder of Emergent Ventures, which has funded more than 1,000 social entrepreneurs and researchers worldwide
- Creator of Fast Grants, which raised more than $50 million and awarded 260 grants for COVID-19 research
- Host of Conversations with Tyler, with guests including Amartya Sen, Esther Duflo, Margaret Atwood, and Peter Thiel
- Named among The Economist's Most Influential Economists (2024)
- Foreign Policy Top 100 Global Thinkers (2011); Prospect World Thinkers #21 (2015)
- Named to the inaugural TIME100 Philanthropy list (2025)
- Co-creator of Marginal Revolution University, used by more than 7,500 US high school econ teachers

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — Recorded a Conversations with Tyler episode with archaeologist Kim Bowes on Roman economics and early Christian life.
- **2026-01** — Continues his generative book project, The Marginal Revolution: Rise and Decline, and the Pending AI Revolution.
- **2025-06** — Named to the inaugural TIME100 Philanthropy list.
- **2025-04** — Began writing a regular column for The Free Press.

## Links

- Website: https://tylercowen.com/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/tylercowen
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnkEhPBMZcEO0QGu51fDFDg

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/tyler-cowen
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-01