Hal Varian

Hal Varian
Hal Varian
Born	March 18, 1947(age 77); Wooster, Ohio
Nationality	American
Academic career
Field	Microeconomics,information technology
Institution	University of California, Berkeley; MIT
School or; tradition	Neoclassical economics
Alma mater	University of California, Berkeley; MIT
Doctoral; advisor	Daniel McFadden; David Gale
Doctoral; students	Earl Grinols; James Andreoni
	InformationatIDEAS / RePEc

Hal Ronald Varian(born March 18, 1947, inWooster, Ohio) isChief EconomistatGoogleand holds the title of emeritus professor at theUniversity of California, Berkeleywhere he was founding dean of theSchool of Information.Varian is an economist specializing inmicroeconomicsandinformation economics.

Varian joined Google in 2002 as its chief economist. He played a key role in the development of Google's advertising model and data analysis practices.^[1]

Early life

Hal Varian was born on March 18, 1947, inWooster, Ohio.He received hisB.S.fromMITin economics in 1969 and both hisM.A.in mathematics andPh.D.in economics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1973.

Career

Varian taught atMIT,Stanford University,theUniversity of Oxford,theUniversity of Michigan,theUniversity of Sienaand other universities around the world. He has two honorary doctorates, from the University of Oulu,Finlandin 2002, and a Dr. h. c. from theKarlsruhe Institute of Technology(KIT), Germany, awarded in 2006. He is emeritus professor at theUniversity of California, Berkeley,where he was founding dean of theSchool of Information.^[2]

Varian joined Google in 2002 as chief economist, and has worked on the design of advertising auctions, econometrics, finance, corporate strategy, and public policy.

Varian is the author of two bestselling textbooks:Intermediate Microeconomics,^[3]an undergraduate microeconomics text, andMicroeconomic Analysis,an advanced text aimed primarily at first-year graduate students in economics. Together withCarl Shapiro,he co-authoredInformation Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network EconomyandThe Economics of Information Technology: An Introduction.^[4]According to theOpen Syllabus Project,Varian is the fourth most frequently cited author on college syllabi for economics courses.^[5]

In September 2023, Varian was called to testify by the DOJ in the U.S. et al. v. Google lawsuit on a memo he wrote in 2003: "Thoughts on Google v Microsoft." with the subject "We should be careful about what we say in both public and private".^[6]^[7]The DOJ also brought up memos where Varian instructed Google employees to avoid the use of language such as "market share," "scale," "network effects," "leverage," "lock up," "lock in," "bundle," and "tie.",^[7]to avoid Google from being perceived as being a monopoly and to avoid scrutiny from antitrust watchdogs.^[8]

Personal life

Varian is married and has one child, Christopher Max Varian.^[9]

References

^Zuboff, Shoshana (2020).The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power.PublicAffairs. p. 64.ISBN 978-1-61039-570-0.
^"Hal R. Varian".U.C. Berkeley.Retrieved2010-10-22.
^Varian, Hal R (2014).Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach: Ninth International Student Edition.W. W. Norton & Company.ISBN 978-0-393-92077-2.
^Hal R. Varian; Joseph Farrell; Carl Shapiro (23 December 2004).The Economics of Information Technology: An Introduction.Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-0-521-60521-2.
^"Open Syllabus Project".Archived fromthe originalon 2022-09-21.Retrieved2020-01-24.
^Feiner, Lauren (2023-09-12)."Google engaged in a monopolistic feedback loop to maintain search dominance, DOJ alleges in first day of trial".CNBC.Retrieved2023-09-16.
^^a ^bRobertson, Adi (2023-09-15)."In the Google antitrust trial, defaults are everything and nobody likes Bing".The Verge.Retrieved2023-09-16.
^Belanger, Ashley (2023-09-14)."Google hid evidence by training workers to avoid words monopolists use, DOJ says".Ars Technica.Retrieved2023-09-16.
^Curriculum vitae Archived2015-12-08 at theWayback Machine(PDF; 122 kB), onberkeley.edu.

External links

Hal Varian's Website
Position Auctions
Roberts, Russ(July 28, 2008)."Varian on Technology".EconTalk.Library of Economics and Liberty.
Hal Varianpublications indexed byGoogle Scholar
"Hal Varian".JSTOR.
AppearancesonC-SPAN

[1] Zuboff, Shoshana (2020).The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power.PublicAffairs. p. 64.ISBN 978-1-61039-570-0.

[2] "Hal R. Varian".U.C. Berkeley.Retrieved2010-10-22.

[3] Varian, Hal R (2014).Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach: Ninth International Student Edition.W. W. Norton & Company.ISBN 978-0-393-92077-2.

[4] Hal R. Varian; Joseph Farrell; Carl Shapiro (23 December 2004).The Economics of Information Technology: An Introduction.Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-0-521-60521-2.

[5] "Open Syllabus Project".Archived fromthe originalon 2022-09-21.Retrieved2020-01-24.

[6] Feiner, Lauren (2023-09-12)."Google engaged in a monopolistic feedback loop to maintain search dominance, DOJ alleges in first day of trial".CNBC.Retrieved2023-09-16.

[:0-7] Robertson, Adi (2023-09-15)."In the Google antitrust trial, defaults are everything and nobody likes Bing".The Verge.Retrieved2023-09-16.

[8] Belanger, Ashley (2023-09-14)."Google hid evidence by training workers to avoid words monopolists use, DOJ says".Ars Technica.Retrieved2023-09-16.

[CV-9] Curriculum vitae Archived2015-12-08 at theWayback Machine(PDF; 122 kB), onberkeley.edu.

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