Marginal Revolution's regular Saturday roundup of assorted links, published August 29, 2026, covers eight items spanning economics research, technology, and culture.

1. Roger Myerson launches a Substack

Nobel laureate economist Roger Myerson, known for his work on mechanism design and game theory — the field studying how to design rules of interaction so participants' incentives produce desired outcomes, which earned him the 2007 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences — now has a Substack. His first post takes up challenges posed by artificial intelligence, an area where mechanism design questions about aligning incentives between humans and AI systems have drawn growing attention from economists.

2. The future of higher education?

A post on X raises questions about what lies ahead for higher education, a topic of ongoing debate as online learning, credentialing alternatives, and AI tools reshape how students acquire skills.

3. Data centers in space

Another look at the idea of orbital data centers, examined here. The concept has circulated as data center power consumption and land constraints on Earth intensify, with proponents pointing to abundant solar energy in orbit and radiative cooling advantages, while launch costs remain the central hurdle.

4. The Global Economics Lab at Harvard

"The Global Economics Lab is a non-partisan organization located at Harvard and draws on a network of faculty affiliates across universities. We conduct policy-relevant research on the forces reshaping the global economy. We engage with governments, central banks, companies, multilaterals, and civil society organizations to translate that research into action." The organization's site and its about page describe its work; it is connected to Gita Gopinath, the Harvard economist who previously served as First Deputy Managing Director of the IMF and Chief Economist of the World Bank, along with other prominent economists.

5. Ryan Murphy starts a Substack

Economist Ryan Murphy now has a Substack focused on liberty, state capacity, and related issues. The launch adds to a broader trend of academic economists moving to direct-to-reader publishing platforms to reach audiences outside traditional journals and op-ed pages.

6. Google AI and Wikipedia

Is Google AI swallowing up interest in Wikipedia? The question is explored in a paper on SSRN, part of a wider research conversation about how AI-generated search answers affect traffic to reference sites that have long depended on search-engine referrals.

7. Puffin tourism in Maine

The Wall Street Journal reports on puffin tourism in Maine, where boat tours to see Atlantic puffins have become a notable draw; the species was nearly wiped out in the state before restoration efforts beginning in the 1970s rebuilt breeding colonies on coastal islands.

8. The business savvy of Dolly Parton

The Wall Street Journal examines the business acumen of Dolly Parton, whose retention of ownership rights over her catalog and licensing of her name to ventures such as the Dollywood theme park have long been cited as examples of artist-friendly dealmaking in the entertainment industry.