This week’s video is about how Hal Varian became the world’s richest economist.
* Technically, we don’t know his exact net worth, but as the video explains, he was a very early employee at Google.
ChatGPT’s other candidates for the title of world's richest economist are Sebastián Piñera and David Teece (founder of Berkeley Research Group).
However, I think Varian wins: Piñera has a PhD in economics but didn’t publish much academically before transitioning into business. In contrast, Varian has made significant contributions to economic literature. Meanwhile, the internet estimates Teece’s net worth at most around $100 million—I’d guess Varian comfortably surpasses that.
Other Notes:
- This video is entirely sourced from Varian’s appearance on a 2008 episode of EconTalk (https://www.econtalk.org/varian-on-technology/). Basically, everything I learned about economics came from early EconTalk episodes—I highly recommend revisiting those early years.