For years, whale oil was used as lighting fuel, industrial lubricant, and the main ingredient in (yum!) margarine. Whale meat was also on a few menus. But today, demand for whale products is at a historic low. And yet some countries still have a whaling industry. We find out why. (Part 2 of “Everything You Never Knew About Whaling.”)

• SOURCES:
  • Jay Alabaster, doctoral student at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism.
  • Bjorn Basberg, professor emeritus of economic history at the Norwegian School of Economics.
  • Eric Hilt, professor of economics at Wellesley College.
  • Kate O’Connell, senior policy consultant for the marine life program at the Animal Welfare Institute.
  • Paul Watson, environmental activist and founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

• RESOURCES:
  • “The Soviet Union Killed an Appalling Number of Whales. I Wanted to Know Why,” by Ryan Tucker Jones (Slate, 2022).
  • “Behind the Smile: The Multi-Billion Dollar Dolphin Entertainment Industry,” by World Animal Protection (2019).
  • “Japan to Resume Commercial Whaling, Defying International Ban,” by Daniel Victor (The New York Times, 2018).
  • “Why Is There Not More Outrage About Japan’s Barbaric Practice of Whaling?” by Boris Johnson (The Telegraph, 2018).
  • “Margarine Once Contained a Whole Lot More Whale,” by Sarah Laskow (Gastro Obscura, 2017).
  • “3 Million Whales Were Killed in the 20th Century: Report,” (N.B.C. News, 2015).
  • “The Spectacular Rise and Fall of U.S. Whaling: An Innovation Story,” by Derek Thompson (The Atlantic, 2012).
  • In Pursuit of Leviathan: Technology, Institutions, Productivity, and Profits in American Whaling, 1816-1906, by Lance E. Davis, Robert E. Gallman, and Karin Gleiter (1997).
  • “Norway Is Planning to Resume Whaling Despite World Ban,” by Craig R. Whitney (The New York Times, 1992).

• EXTRAS:
  • “The First Great American Industry,” by Freakonomics Radio (2023).

Whaling was, in the words of one scholar, “early capitalism unleashed on the high seas.” How did the U.S. come to dominate the whale market? Why did whale hunting die out here — and continue to grow elsewhere? And is that whale vomit in your perfume? (Part 1 of “Everything You Never Knew About Whaling.”)

• SOURCES:
  • Eric Hilt, professor of economics at Wellesley College.
  • Nathaniel Philbrick, writer and historian.
  • Paul Watson, environmental activist and founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

• RESOURCES:
  • “Calls From the Deep: Do We Need to Save the Whales All Over Again?” by Sophy Grimshaw (The Guardian, 2020).
  • “The Very Small World of V.C.,” by Avi Asher-Schapiro (The New Republic, 2019).
  • “How Nantucket Came to Be the Whaling Capital of the World,” by Nathaniel Philbrick (Smithsonian Magazine, 2015).
  • “Fin-tech,” (The Economist, 2015).
  • “The Spectacular Rise and Fall of U.S. Whaling: An Innovation Story,” by Derek Thompson (The Atlantic, 2012).
  • Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America, by Eric Jay Dolin (2007).
  • “Incentives in Corporations: Evidence from the American Whaling Industry,” by Eric Hilt (NBER Working Papers, 2004).
  • In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, by Nathaniel Philbrick (2000).
  • “Productivity in American Whaling: The new Bedford Fleet in the Nineteenth Century,” by Lance Davis, Robert Galiman, and Teresa Hutchins (NBER Working Paper, 1987).

• EXTRAS:
  • “Is Venture Capital the Secret Sauce of the American Economy?” by Freakonomics Radio (2021).
  • “Is the Future of Farming in the Ocean?” by Freakonomics Radio (2021).

It’s a haphazard way of paying workers, and yet it keeps expanding. With federal tax policy shifting in a pro-tip direction, we revisit an episode from 2019 to find out why.

• SOURCES:
  • John List, economist at the University of Chicago.
  • Michael Lynn, professor of consumer behavior and marketing at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration.
  • Uri Gneezy, economist at the University of California, San Diego’s Rady School of Management.
  • Danny Meyer, founder of Union Square Hospitality Group, and founder and chairman of the board of Shake Shack.

• RESOURCES:
  • "How ‘No Tax on Tips’ Will Affect Waiters, Drivers and Diners," by Julia Moskin (New York Times, 2025).
  • “The Drivers of Social Preferences: Evidence from a Nationwide Tipping Field Experiment,” by Bharat Chandar, Uri Gneezy, John List, and Ian Muir (The National Bureau of Economic Research, 2019).
  • “Design and Analysis of Cluster-Randomized Field Experiments in Panel Data Settings,” by Bharat Chandar, Ali Hortacsu, John List, Ian Muir, and Jeffrey Wooldridge (The National Bureau of Economic Research, 2019).
  • “The Effects of Tipping on Consumers’ Satisfaction with Restaurants,” by Michael Lynn (The Journal of Consumer Affairs, 2018).
  • “The Importance of Being Marginal: Gender Differences in Generosity,” Stefano DellaVigna, John List, Ulrike Malmendier, and Gautam Rao (The American Economic Review, 2013).
  • “Restaurant Tipping and Service Quality: A Tenuous Relationship,” by Michael Lynn (The Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 2001).

• EXTRAS:
  • “The No-Tipping Point,” by Freakonomics Radio (2016).
  • “Should Tipping Be Banned?” by Freakonomics Radio (2013).