Tyler Cowen

Tyler Cowen is the Holbert L. Harris Professor of Economics at George Mason University and a Free Press columnist who writes and speaks about how artificial intelligence will change work and economic growth. After earning a Harvard PhD in 1987, he launched the Marginal Revolution blog with Alex Tabarrok in 2003 and founded the Emergent Ventures grant program in 2018. His 2013 book Average Is Over predicted that AI and automation would widen income inequality, and his 2023 book GOAT came with an AI chatbot that readers could question. In April 2025, he declared OpenAI's o3 model to be AGI, and in May 2026 he told the Sana AI summit that AI would change most jobs and lift economic growth from 2% to 2.5%.

Now at: George Mason University, Mercatus Center and The Free Press
Born: 1962
Badges: Bridge
Boomerang

Years link to their sources.

Timeline

1983–1987

Chess and a Harvard PhD

Raised in Hillsdale, New Jersey, he becomes the youngest-ever New Jersey state chess champion at 15. He earns a BS in economics at George Mason University in 1983 and a Harvard economics PhD in 1987 with the thesis Essays in the Theory of Welfare Economics, mentored by game theorist Thomas Schelling.
2003–2015

Marginal Revolution and a podcast

He joins the George Mason University faculty shortly after his doctorate. In August 2003, he and economist Alex Tabarrok launch the blog Marginal Revolution, and in 2015 he begins hosting Conversations with Tyler, a long-form interview podcast produced by the Mercatus Center.
2013

Average Is Over

His 2013 book Average Is Over predicts that artificial intelligence and automation will widen income inequality, and argues that the economy will reward people who can enhance the capabilities of technology. It points to freestyle chess, a team game built on the creative use of chess-playing software, as a preview of that future.
2016–2025

From Bloomberg to The Free Press

He joins Bloomberg View as a staff columnist in July 2016, writing about economics and policy while serving as director of the Mercatus Center. In April 2025, after roughly eight years as a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, he moves his regular column to The Free Press, which he calls his new intellectual home.
2018–2020

Founding Emergent Ventures

In 2018, he founds Emergent Ventures, a fellowship and grant program at the Mercatus Center launched with a $1 million grant from the Thiel Foundation. In 2020, with Patrick Collison and Patrick Hsu, he spins off Fast Grants to fund COVID-19 research; it raises over $50 million and awards 260 grants.
2023–2024

GOAT, a generative book

In 2023, he publishes GOAT: Who is the Greatest Economist of All Time and Why Does it Matter?, which he calls a generative book: it comes with an AI chatbot, runs in GPT-4 and Claude 2, and answers readers' questions about its contents. He uses it in 2024 as the primary text for his ECON 895 History of Economic Thought course. In January 2024, he shows on Dan Shipper's podcast how he uses ChatGPT as a translator, reading companion and research tool.
2025

Calling o3 AGI

In April 2025, he declares OpenAI's newly released o3 model to be AGI, a claim Gary Marcus criticizes on his newsletter. In 2025, he supervises Janna Lu's George Mason dissertation, Essays in the Capabilities of Large Language Models and Historical Reactions to Technological Change.
As of October 2026

Harris Professor at George Mason

He is the Holbert L. Harris Professor of Economics at George Mason University, faculty director of the Mercatus Center and a Free Press columnist whose 2026 columns cover AI regulation and AI writing. In April 2026, he discusses autonomous AI, markets and consciousness with Jonathan Zittrain at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center. In May 2026, he tells the Sana AI summit in New York that AI will change most jobs, and he forecasts that it will lift economic growth from 2% to 2.5%.