Tyler Cowen
FollowThe latest interviews, podcast appearances, and blog posts from Tyler Cowen, updated daily.
The Decline in the Transmission of Scientific Ideas
We document that the diffusion of new scientific ideas beyond their field of origin has declined substantially over the past four decades.
In relative terms, maybe children do not cost more than before?
Despite rapid inflation in childcare and tuition prices, the goods-and-services CCI closely tracks adult prices, as these increases are offset by children’s lower exposure to shelter and by slower…
Sunday assorted links
1. Deirdre economics reading list. 2. The 1878 entrance exam for the British India civil service. 3. How good is Opus 5 on biology? 4.
Further progress in South America
The share of people who are hungry has been decreasing faster in South America than anywhere else in the world.
The demand for human enhancement technologies
When a new technology promises large private benefits but may impose social costs that markets do not price, demand need not reveal how citizens want it governed.
The common sense of Fareed Zakaria
This is one of the best Op-Eds you will read this year, though it deliberately deemphasizes the personal (no one is attacked) in a manner that will result in less attention. Better to write the truth!
Odysseus notes
The subsection of the Georgi Gospodinov novel runs like this: The Shortest Novel About Odysseus After His Return Home One night, now old and flabby and starting to forget, he leaves his home secretly.
Crypto markets in everything? (moo)
Farmers in Parana, Brazil, struggling to get banks to loan them cash, became the first to tokenize livestock and place 10 dairy milk cows’ tokens for trade on the country’s B3 national stock exchange.
A natural experiment in economics
To study whether and how academics respond to political pressure, we exploit a natural experiment: the publication in early 2025 of a “blacklist” of words flagged by the U. S. government.
The Decision, the sequel
Imagine your career were coming to a close, how would you want it to end? By earning an especially large sum of money? Publishing a final wonderful paper? With an amazing act of mentorship?