Michael Munger

Professor of Political Science

Duke University

Prof. Munger received his Ph.D. in Economics at Washington University in St. Louis in 1984. He later worked as a staff economist at the Federal Trade Commission, and taught at Dartmouth College, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill At UNC he directed the MPA Program, which trains public service professionals, especially city and county management.

He moved to Duke in 1997, and was Chair of the Political Science Department from 2000 through 2010 . He has won three University-wide teaching awards (the Howard Johnson Award, an NAACP "Image" Award for teaching about race, and admission to the Bass Society of Teaching Fellows). He is currently director of the interdisciplinary PPE Program at Duke University, working under Dr. Geoffrey Brennan who directs the joint Duke-UNC PPE Program.

His research interests include the study of the morality of exchange and the working of legislative institutions in producing policy. Much of his recent work has been in philosophy, examining the concept of truly voluntary exchange, a concept for which Munger coined the term "euvoluntary." He has created a new blog devoted to investigating examples of, and controversies about, euvoluntary exchange.

His fourth and most recent book, Analyzing Policy, was published in August 2000 by W.W. Norton. He blogs at Kids Prefer Cheese and Division of Labour. Munger may be best known, however, for his podcasts playing McMahon to Russ Roberts' Carson on "EconTalk."

April 12, 2013
4:05

What can we learn about markets from a WWII POW camp? According...

February 04, 2013
3:34

People and organizations incur costs when they compete for money that is “given”...

January 18, 2013
3:44

Why is it that organized interest groups such as the National Rifle Association wield such...

January 03, 2013
4:35

According to Prof. Michael Munger, prices (as in, the price of a carton of milk, or a new...

December 20, 2012
4:47

An "externality" occurs when a transaction between two people affects a third person...

September 05, 2012
5:00

In this video, Professor Munger reminds us of the difference between democracy and majority rule...