008 Taylor Jaworski, Economist

For our eighth episode I sat down with Taylor Jaworski in his office at the University of Colorado where he is a research faculty.  Taylor is an economist studies regional economics and is passionate about what makes cities work.  Our conversation ranged across topics including what’s so great about cities, why is housing expensive, collective action in the context of incumbents and newcomers, tax policy, whether Boulder residents are uniquely greedy, dynamism, diversity, radical markets, and more.  Taylor tends to wave his hands around while speaking in generalities – but when I really pinned him down on what policy changes he would make in Boulder, he singled out exclusionary zoning, occupancy restrictions, and NIMBY attitudes more generally as being important impediments to having the kind of dynamic city he wants to live in.   

A book that Taylor recommended to me about a year ago quotes the famous economist John Maynard Keynes as saying the following: “The ideas of economists both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood.  Indeed the world is ruled by little else.  Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.” Taylor is no defunct economist – he is brimming with energy and ideas and is passionate about seeing Boulder become a prosperous and diverse city.  And I think that is totally funct!