Wally Thurman on Bees, Beekeeping, and Coase

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4.7 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 16 December 2013

⏱️ 63 minutes

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Summary

Wally Thurman of North Carolina State University and PERC talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the world of bees, beekeepers, and the market for pollination. Thurman describes how farmers hire beekeepers to pollinate their crops and how that market keeps improving crop yields and producing honey. Thurman then discusses how beekeepers have responded to Colony Collapse Disorder--a not fully understood phenomenon where colonies disband, dramatically reducing the number of bees. The discussion closes with the history of bee pollination as an example of a reciprocal externality and how Coase's insight helps understand how the pollination market works.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty. I'm your host Russ Roberts
0:07.8	of Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Our website is econtalk.org or you can subscribe,
0:14.4	comment on this podcast, and find links and other information related to today's conversation.
0:19.6	We'll also find our archives where you can listen to every episode we've ever done going
0:23.3	back to 2006. Our email address is mailadycontalk.org. We'd love to hear from you.
0:32.0	Today is December 10, 2013. Before we begin this week's interview, I want to thank everyone who
0:38.4	submitted an essay for the first e-con talk essay contest, and I want to congratulate the winners
0:43.6	Scott Atherly or Mustin and Dallas Weaver. You can find their essays at my blog, Cafe Hyak,
0:48.8	or using a link from the e-con talk homepage. The idea for an essay contest came from last week's
0:54.1	guest, Doug Lemov, who talked about the power of writing as a way of learning. Stay in touch
0:59.2	about future initiatives like this, follow me on Twitter at e-contalker, e-c-o-n-t-a-l-k-e-r,
1:06.1	or like e-contalk's Facebook page. I also want to thank all of you who wrote in response to my
1:11.6	request during the recent interview with Joel Mokir to let me know that you listened to e-con talk
1:16.4	while you're working. Sorry I couldn't respond to very many of you. I've received about 150 emails
1:22.3	so far just on this topic. It's nice to know that many of you are working while you're listening,
1:27.8	a little frightening for some of you, but I'll keep your secret quiet. I greatly appreciated
1:33.3	your feedback and was delighted to hear what you're doing on the job. I was fascinating.
1:38.4	Now for today's guest, he is Wally Thurman, a William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor
1:44.0	at North Carolina State University, and a senior fellow at the Property and Environmental Research
1:48.4	Center. He has written extensively on agricultural economics and natural resources while he
1:53.8	welcome to e-con talk. Thank you, Rust. Pleasure to be with you. Our topic today is the world of
2:00.0	bees, beekeepers, and the economics of that world. Along the way, we're going to get into some
	...

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