Tyler Cowen

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Tyler Cowen

Tyler Cowen (born January 21, 1962 in Bergen County ) is an American economist . He is a professor of economics at George Mason University , director of the think tank Mercatus Center , columnist for Bloomberg News and, with Alex Tabarrok, runs the blog Marginal Revolution . Cowen studied economics at George Mason University (B.Sc., 1983) and received his PhD from Harvard University in 1987 .

World market of cultures

In his book Creative Destruction: How Globalization is Changing the World's Cultures (2002), that follows on from Schumpeter's considerations on the process of technical and economic innovations, and in contrast to the critical theory of a "prosperity gain model" based on prosperity , technology and global trade promote culture and its diversity. He tries to demonstrate the validity of this model using many examples. It was the metal knife imported from Europe that made it possible for the Indians of the Pacific coast to create impressive totem poles, or for the imported sound technology to make Jamaican reggae a success worldwide . Using the example of a few poor indigenous Mexican painters, Cowen shows the possibilities that arise if their pictures reach the world market. However, he admits three potential problems with his model:

  • The influence of trade on social ethos : The worldview is a characteristic component of a culture, which is disrupted by increased cultural change and ultimately disappears. However, this change over time also creates new synthetic cultural products.
  • The regional bundling of certain goods and services: Using Hollywood as an example , Cowen shows that the global dominance of universalistic US film productions does not hinder the service of niche markets, but promotes it.
  • The change of consciousness and customer interest in quality issues: The size of the cultural market is growing not only the superficial, of Cowen extensively called cultural consumption, but also the quality controlling intensive use or Hobbyismus that can not unfold in small, homogenous markets.

Cowen draws three conclusions:

  • The concept of cultural diversity has numerous meanings that differ from one another. A distinction can be made between inter-social, individual and temporal diversity.
  • Cultural homogenization and heterogenization are not alternatives. Rather, they tend to occur simultaneously. Increased cultural exchange can reduce inter-societal diversity and at the same time increase intra-societal diversity and individual options.
  • It is true that intercultural exchange changes and damages every society it touches; Ultimately, however, it promotes innovation as well as human creativity .

Cowen believes that most cultures are synthetic but seldom become aware of it. The rejection of cultural change is based less on the lack of appreciation of diversity itself than on the unsystematic devaluation of individual foreign influences.

Economic and social stagnation

In The Great Stagnation (2011), Cowen diagnosed a permanent slowdown in the productivity of the US economy. With regard to US culture, he diagnoses in The Complacent class ("Die smugly class", 2017) an increasing hostility to innovation and a loss of willingness to take risks. What once set the USA apart from Europe and Asia is in danger of being lost. The excessive caution and conformity of the safety-first society, as well as a culture of wellbeing, harmed the American economy. According to Edward Luce , who shares Cowen's position, these changes can actually be observed in the conformistly designed offices of start-ups as well as in the chill-out zones of universities.

Political positions

Cowen takes positions of libertarianism with a neoclassical and utilitarian accent. For example, he rejects antitrust legislation despite the increase in power he has granted to globally operating large companies, but in some cases accepts the need for state intervention, the quality of which should not be rated negatively in principle. Critics accuse him of promoting irresponsible actions by banks, which massively destroyed social wealth in the financial crisis, when he calls for the limitation of the liability of shareholders and the reduction of the banks' capitalization. His theses would legitimize the emergence of dangerous, “criminogenic” institutions and promote moral hazard . Paul Krugman criticized him for saying that Ireland's recovery since the financial crisis was an argument against Keynesianism .

Books

  • The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream . New York, NY: St. Martins Press. 2017. ISBN 1250108691
  • The Great Stagnation. How America Ate All The Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better. Dutton, 2011. (e-book)
  • Modern Principles of Economics (with Alex Tabarrok). Worth Publishers, 2009.
  • Modern Principles: Microeconomics (with Alex Tabarrok). Worth Publishers, 2009.
  • Modern Principles: Macroeconomics (with Alex Tabarrok). Worth Publishers, 2009.
  • Create Your Own Economy: The Path to Prosperity in a Disordered World. Dutton, 2009.
    • published in paperback under the title: The Age of the Infovore: Succeeding in the Information Economy. Plume, 2010.
  • Discover Your Inner Economist: Use Incentives to Fall in Love, Survive Your Next Meeting, and Motivate Your Dentist, Penguin / Dutton, 2007.
  • Good & Plenty: The Creative Successes of American Arts Funding. Princeton University Press, 2006.
  • Markets and Culture Voices: Liberty vs. Power in the Lives of the Mexican Amate Painters. University of Michigan Press, 2005.
  • Creative Destruction: How Globalization is Changing the World's Cultures. Princeton University Press, 2002. - German translation: World market of cultures. Murmann, 2004.
  • New Theories of Market Failure (Ed. With Eric Crampton). Edward Elgar Press, 2002.
  • What Price Fame ?, Harvard University Press, 2000.
  • Economic Welfare (Ed.). Edward Elgar Press, 2000.
  • In Praise of Commercial Culture. Harvard University Press, 1998.
  • Risk and Business Cycles: New and Old Austrian Perspectives. Routledge Press, 1998.
  • Explorations in the New Monetary Economics (with Randall Kroszner). Basil Blackwell Press, 1994.
  • Public Goods and Market Failures: A Critical Examination (Ed .; new edition). Transactions Publishers, 1991.
  • The Theory of Market Failure: A Critical Examination (Ed.). George Mason University Press, 1988.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ German: World market of cultures: profit and loss through globalization. Hamburg 2004.
  2. ^ Tyler Cowen: Markets and Cultural Voices , Ann Arbor 2005, p. 1.
  3. ^ Edward Luce: Dreaming small: how America lost its taste for risk , in: ft.com, February 17, 2017.
  4. ↑ Tyler Cowen: Yesterday's Antitrust Laws Can't Solve Today's Problems , on bloomberg.com, October 5, 2016.
  5. ^ Tyler Cowen: The Libertarian Vice , on marginalrevolution.com, Aug. 11, 2006.
  6. ^ William K. Black: Bank Failures are "Inconceivable" under the Latest Neoclassical Fantasy , in neweconomicperspectives.org, October 6, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Cowen, Tyler
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American economist and blogger
DATE OF BIRTH January 21, 1962
PLACE OF BIRTH Bergen County