The Economics of Scarcity and the UNC-Duke Basketball Game (with Michael Munger)

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 Michael Munger (appearance !) 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.

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The Economics of Scarcity and the UNC-Duke Basketball Game (with Michael Munger) is an episode from EconTalk by Library of Economics and Liberty.

This episode is 01:06:08 long.

This episode was published on Mar 16, 2026.

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