Alex Tabarrok

Alex Tabarrok
Tabarrok speaking at TED in 2009
Born (1966-11-11) November 11, 1966 (age 59)
Academic background
EducationUniversity of Victoria (BA)
George Mason University (PhD)
Academic work
InstitutionsGeorge Mason University

Alexander Taghi Tabarrok (born November 11, 1966) is a Canadian-American economist. Tabarrok is a professor at George Mason University and Bartley J. Madden Chair in Economics at the school's Mercatus Center.

With Tyler Cowen, he co-authors the economics blog Marginal Revolution, which began in August 2003. In 2012, Tabarrok and Cowen co-founded Marginal Revolution University, which offers free online economics courses.

Education and career

He earned a B.A. from the University of Victoria in Canada in 1989 and received his Ph.D. from George Mason University in 1994.

From 1999 until 2013 he was director of research for the Independent Institute, an Oakland, California-based think tank.

He taught at Ball State University from 1995 to 1999 and joined George Mason University in 2002.

Research and writing

He has done work on dominant assurance contracts, law and economics, and health economics. In his 1998 model of dominant assurance contracts, an entrepreneur pays a bonus to people who pledged to contribute if participation is insufficient to provide a public good.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Tabarrok worked with the Accelerating Health Technologies group on proposals to expand vaccine production and accelerate vaccine availability.

Tabarrok is co-author with Cowen of the textbook Modern Principles of Economics and author of Launching the Innovation Renaissance (2011).

In 2012, journalist David Brooks called Tabarrok one of the most influential bloggers on the political right, writing that he is among those who "start from broadly libertarian premises but do not apply them in a doctrinaire way."

References

  1. 1 2 "Alex Tabarrok's Home Page". mason.gmu.edu. Retrieved May 11, 2023.
  2. ↑ "About Marginal Revolution - Marginal REVOLUTION". Marginal REVOLUTION.
  3. ↑ "About MRU | Marginal Revolution University". learn.mru.org. Retrieved March 20, 2025.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Curriculum Vitae of Alex Tabarrok" (PDF).
  5. 1 2 Tabarrok, Alexander (1998). "The private provision of public goods via dominant assurance contracts" (PDF). Public Choice. 96: 345–362. doi:10.1023/A:1004957109535.
  6. ↑ Bown, Chad P. (June 21, 2022). "The US was quick to produce COVID-19 vaccines. Then it fell behind". Peterson Institute for International Economics.
  7. ↑ Ahuja, Amrita; et al. (2021). "Preparing for a Pandemic: Accelerating Vaccine Availability". AEA Papers and Proceedings. 111: 331–335. doi:10.1257/pandp.20211103.
  8. ↑ Brooks, David (November 19, 2012). "The Conservative Future". New York Times. Retrieved November 28, 2012.