Bio: Tyler Cowen is Holbert C. Harris Chair of Economics at George Mason University and serves as chairman and general director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. With colleague Alex Tabarrok, Cowen is coauthor of the popular economics blog Marginal Revolution and co-founder of the online educational platform Marginal Revolution University.

A dedicated writer and communicator of economic ideas who has written extensively on the economics of culture, Cowen is the author of several books and is widely published in academic journals and the popular media. He writes the Economic Scene column for the New York Times, has contributed extensively to national publications such as the Wall Street Journal and Money, and serves on the on the advisory boards of both Wilson Quarterly and American Interest. He edited the volume Public Goods and Market Failures, and co-authored Explorations in the New Monetary Economics with Randall Kroszner. Other books include: Markets and Cultural Voices, In Praise of Commercial Culture, What Price Fame?, and Creative Destruction. His research has been published in the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Ethics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs.

In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek profiled Cowen as “America’s Hottest Economist” after his e-book, The Great Stagnation, appeared twice on the New York Times e-book bestseller list. Columnist David Brooks declared it “the most debated nonfiction book so far this year.” Foreign Policy named Cowen as one of 2011’s “Top 100 Global Thinkers,” and an Economist survey counted him as one of the most influential economists of the last decade.

Cowen graduated from George Mason University with a BS in economics and received his PhD in economics from Harvard University.