Tyler Cowen is an American economist, academic, and writer. He occupies the Holbert C. Harris Chair of economics as a professor at George Mason University and is co-author, with Alex Tabarrok, of the popular economics blog Marginal Revolution. He currently writes the “Economic Scene” column for the New York Times, and he also writes for such publications as the New Republic, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Newsweek, and The Wilson Quarterly. Mr. Cowen is also general director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. In February 2011, Mr.Cowen received a nomination as one of the most influential economists in the last decade through a survey by the Economist.