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The Marginal Revolution Podcast

by Mercatus Center at George Mason University

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Latest episodes

  • America's Debt: Crisis or Calm?

    December 2, 2025 · 37 min

    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…

  • The Return of Tariffs - Unpacking incidence, retaliation, and the return of protectionism

    November 18, 2025 · 54 min

    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…

  • Compensating Differentials and Selective Incentives

    November 4, 2025 · 52 min

    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…

  • The Baumol Effect

    October 21, 2025 · 51 min

    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…

  • Favorite Models: Spence on Monopolies, Harberger on Incidence, Solow on Growth

    October 7, 2025 · 55 min

    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…

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  • In Praise of Commercial Culture

    September 23, 2025 · 1 hr 4 min

    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…

  • The Quest to Price Options

    December 17, 2024 · 44 min

    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…

  • The New Monetary Economics

    December 3, 2024 · 48 min

    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…

  • The Economics of Insurance

    November 19, 2024 · 59 min

    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…

  • The 1970s Crime Wave

    November 12, 2024 · 51 min

    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…

  • Oil Shocks, Price Controls, and War

    October 22, 2024 · 46 min

    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…

  • The Economics Nobel: Predictions, Missed Opportunities, and Questionable Winners

    October 8, 2024 · 39 min

    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…

Full episode archive on Apple Podcasts →

About the show

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.