Hal Varian | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1947-03-18)March 18, 1947 (age 77) |
| 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 |
| Information atIDEAS / RePEc | |
Hal Ronald Varian (born March 18, 1947, inWooster, Ohio) isChief Economist atGoogle and holds the title of emeritus professor at theUniversity of California, Berkeley where he was founding dean of theSchool of Information. Varian is an economist specializing inmicroeconomics andinformation 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]
Hal Varian was born on March 18, 1947, inWooster, Ohio. He received hisB.S. fromMIT in economics in 1969 and both hisM.A. in mathematics andPh.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1973.
Varian taught atMIT,Stanford University, theUniversity of Oxford, theUniversity of Michigan, theUniversity of Siena and other universities around the world. He has two honorary doctorates, from the University of Oulu,Finland in 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 Economy andThe 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 in theUnited States v. Google lawsuit by theDepartment of Justice 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]
Varian is married and has one child, Christopher Max Varian.[9]
