- Economics
- Answering Challenges to Advanced Economies
- Reforming K-12 Education
Duke University leaves millions of dollars on the table every year by giving away free tickets to the most sought-after game in college basketball. The bizarre ticket allocation system includes weeks of camping in tents, a 58-question trivia exam, border guards with air horns at 3 AM, and a 50-page student-written constitution with its own appeals court. In this special 20th-anniversary episode, EconTalk's Russ Roberts and returning favorite Mike Munger (appearance #51!) use the legendary Duke-UNC rivalry to explore the fundamental economics question: how do you deal with a world when there isn't enough of something to go around? Along the way, they ask why a university that squeezes students on every other margin, might deliberately forgo a fortune on ticket sales. The answer has everything to do with community, belonging, and the same psychology that bonds fighter pilots and elite military units.
Listen to this episode: Click here
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Mike Munger is a professor of political science, economics, and public policy and director of the PPE Certificate Program. His primary research focus is on the functioning of markets, regulation, and government institutions. He has taught at Dartmouth College, University of Texas, and University of North Carolina, as well as working as a staff economist at the Federal Trade Commission during the Reagan Administration.H is recent books include Choosing in Groups (2015, Cambridge U Press) and Tomorrow 3.0 (2018, Cambridge U Press), and The Sharing Economy (2021, Institute of Economic Affairs).
Visit Michael Munger's Website
RELATED SOURCE
- "Duke’s Tent City ‘K-Ville’ — Still Crazy After 40 Years" by Michael Munger in The Daily Economy, January 28, 2026
- Munger's EconTalk Episodes
- The Answer Is Transaction Costs, Munger's Podcast
- Eugene Fama on Finance
- "Krzyzewskiville at Duke University" Constitution
- The Wealth of Nations, Book 1, Chapter 5: "Of the Real and Nominal Price of Commodities, or of their Price in Labour, and their Price in Money" by Adam Smith in The Library of Economics and Liberty
- "Organizational forms and investment decisions (Chapter 22)" -by Eugene Fama and Michael Jensen in The Economic Nature of the Firm. June 5, 2014
- Russ Roberts on Ticket Prices and Scalping
- Michael Munger on Ticket Scalping and Opportunity Cost
- Mitch Weiss on the Business of Broadway
- 'The Market for "Lemons": Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism' by George A. Akerlof in The Quarterly Journal of Economics. Aug., 1970
- The Road to Serfdom by FA Hayek on Amazon.com
- David Skarbek on Prison Gangs and the Social Order of the Underworld
