Joel S. Ehrenkranz Family Professor; Professor of Business and Public Policy
Research Areas
Industrial organization; law and economics; public economics; economics of media industries
Current Projects
Distributional effects in product markets; local media markets: race, localism, and political participation; intellectual property piracy; information intermediaries and competition in online markets.
Representative Publications
The Tyranny of the Market, Harvard University Press, 2007.
(with Mary J. Benner)
“Close to You? Bias and Precision in Patent-Based Measures of Technological Proximity.” Research Policy (forthcoming).
(with R. Rob)
“Piracy on the Silver Screen” Journal of Industrial Economics (2007).
“The Median Voter and the Median Consumer.” Journal of Urban Economics(2008).
(with L. Chen)
“Does Information Undermine Brand? Information Intermediary Use and Preference for Branded Web Retailers.” Journal of Industrial Economics (2006).
(with L. George)
"The New York Times and the Market for Local Newspapers." American Economic Review (2006).
(with R. Rob)
"Piracy on the High C's: Music Downloading, Sales Displacement, and Social Welfare." Journal of Law & Economics (forthcoming).
"Does Consumer Irrationality Trump Consumer Sovereignty?" The Review of Economics and Statistics (2005).
(with T. Sinai)
"Do Low-Income Housing Subsidies Increase Housing Consumption?" The Journal of Public Economics (2005).
(with F. Oberholzer-Gee)
"Strength in Numbers: Group Size and Political Mobilization" Journal of Law & Economics(2005).
"Preference Externalities: An Empirical Study of Whom Benefits Whom in Differentiated Product Markets." RAND Journal of Economics (2003).
(with L. George)
"Who Benefits Whom in Daily Newspaper Markets?" Journal of Political Economy (2003).
Education
PhD, Stanford University, 1990; BA, Brandeis University, 1984
Recent Consulting
Federal Communications Commission Media Ownership Working Group, 2001-2003
Career and Recent Professional Awards; Teaching Awards
Alfred P. Sloan Dissertation Fellowship, Stanford University, 1989-90; John M. Olin Faculty Fellowship, Yale Law School, 1994. Journal of Industrial Economics, Best Article of the Year Price, 2006. Monroe-Paine Lecture, University of Missouri, 2007.
Academic Positions Held
Wharton: 1997-present (Chairperson, Business and Public Policy Department, 2006-2009; Associate Vice Dean, Doctoral Programs, 2000-2006; named Joel S. Ehrenkranz Family Professor, 2003). Previous appointment: Yale University
Other Positions
Economist, F.W. Dodge/DRI, 1985-87
Professional Leadership 2005-2009
Associate Editor, Information Economics & Policy; Editorial Board, International Review of Law and Economics. Guest Editor, Special Issue of Information Economics & Policy on Economics of the Media; Scientific Committee, 5th and 6th Annual Conferences on Media Economics (Bologna and Zurich)
