Hal R. Varian
Department: Haas School of Business; Department of Economics; School of Information Management and Systems (SIMS)
Colleges / Universities: University of California, Berkeley
Contact
102 South Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720-4600
Email: hal@sims.berkeley.edu
Website: UC Berkeley faculty profile
Hal R. Varian is an emeritus professor in the School of Information, the Haas School of Business, and the Department of Economics at the University of California at Berkeley. He is the Chief Economist at Google. He started in May 2002 as a consultant and has been involved in many aspects of the company, including auction design, econometric analysis, finance, corporate strategy and public policy.
Dr. Varian is a fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation, the Econometric Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was Co-Editor of the American Economic Review from 1987-1990 and holds honorary doctorates from the University of Oulu, Finland and the University of Karlsruhe, Germany.
Professor Varian has published numerous papers in economic theory, industrial organization, financial economics, econometrics and information economics. He is the author of two major economics textbooks which have been translated into 22 languages. He is the co-author of a bestselling book on business strategy, Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy and wrote a monthly column for The New York Times from 2000 to 2007.
Degrees
S.B. Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1969
M.A. Mathematics, University of California at Berkeley, 1973
Ph.D. Economics, University of California at Berkeley, 1973
Recent Academic Article Summaries
Artificial Intelligence, Economics, and Industrial Organization
Deployment of artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) systems will affect the size and choices of firms that provide or use AI services. Economists consider the effects of AI on pricing, firm size, competition, privacy, and security.
The overall effect of AI and ML on firm behavior and choices is hard to predict.
The Next Digital Decade
This book looks at the future of the Internet, asking how Internet economics and regulation are likely to change.
Experts agree that the Internet is important, but disagree about the best legal and policy approaches to issues like privacy, free speech, and Internet governance.
Computer Mediated Transactions
This paper talks about how computers and the Internet have changed the business world.
Computer and the Internet help businesses lower costs of many functions by helping them use and share data to learn, experiment, and work together.
Online Ad Auctions
This paper describes how Google and other search engines sell Internet ads.
Advertisers seem to enjoy from two to three times more benefit from online ads as their costs.
Economics of Internet Search, The
This slide presentation explores the history of Google and how search engines make money.
Several different search engines are likely to continue to exist in the market, because there is no reason that there would be only one.
Blog Posts
Quotes in the News
Varian, H. (2018, October 22). The Globe and Mail.“Technology is changing quickly and things are happening and so there is a certain amount of anxiety, but I do believe that will be overcome as people learn the value of tech.”
Hal R. Varian
Haas School of Business; Department of Economics; School of Information Management and Systems (SIMS)
University of California, Berkeley
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