Carl Shapiro

Distinguished Professor of the Graduate School
University of California, Berkeley

Contact Information

cshapiro@berkeley.edu

Haas School of Business
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-1900


Bio and CV

Carl Shapiro is a Distinguished Professor of the Graduate School at the Haas School of Business and the Department of Economics at the University of California at Berkeley. He also is the Transamerica Professor of Business Strategy Emeritus at the Haas School of Business.

Shapiro's Curriculum Vitae

Shapiro's Photo

Shapiro had the honor of serving as a Senate-confirmed Member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers during 2011-12. For the two years immediately prior to that, he was the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Economics at the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice; he also held that position during 1995-96. From 1998 to 2008, Shapiro served as Director of the Institute of Business and Economic Research at UC Berkeley. He has been Editor and Co-Editor of the Journal of Economic Perspectives and a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, among other honors. Shapiro earned his Ph.D. in Economics at M.I.T. in 1981, taught at Princeton University during the 1980s, and has been on the faculty at UC Berkeley since 1990.

Shapiro is the co-author, with Hal R. Varian, of Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy, published by the Harvard Business School Press. Information Rules has received critical acclaim for its application of economic principles to the Information Economy and has been widely read by managers and adopted for classroom use.

Shapiro has published extensively in the areas of industrial organization, competition policy, patents, the economics of innovation, and competitive strategy. His current research interests include competition policy, the economics of innovation, the design and use of patents, housing finance, and energy and environmental economics.

Writings

2024

Trends in Competition in the United States: What Does the Evidence Show?, with Ali Yurukoglu

Evolution of the Merger Guidelines: Is This Fox Too Clever By Half?, Review of Industrial Organization

Single-Firm Conduct Working Group Report, California Law Review Commission Study of Antitrust Law, with Aaron Edlin, Doug Melamed, Sam Miller, and Fiona Scott Morton, January

2023

Recommended Revisions to the Draft Merger Guidelines, September

How Would These Draft Guidelines Work in Practice?, Promarket

Why Dropping Market Power from the Merger Guidelines Matters, Promarket

How Biden Can Get Antitrust Right, with Jason Furman, Wall Street Journal

Using and Misusing Microeconomics: Federal Trade Commission vs. Qualcomm, with Keith Waehrer, in Antitrust Economics at a Time of Upheaval: Competition Policy Cases on Two Continents, John Kwoka, Tommaso Valletti, and Lawrence White, eds.

Regulating Big Tech: Factual Foundations and Policy Goals, Network Law Review

2022

What Next for the Horizontal Merger Guidelines?, with Nancy Rose, Antitrust Magazine

Invigorating Antitrust Podcast, Diana Moss, Moderator, American Antitrust Institute,

Fireside Chat on Antitrust Merger Guidelines Webinar, D. Daniel Sokol, Moderator

Testimony Before the House Small Business Committee, March, Video

2021

Antitrust: What Went Wrong and How to Fix It, Antitrust Magazine

How Will the FTC Evaluate Vertical Mergers?, with Herbert Hovenkamp, Promarket

Vertical Mergers and Input Foreclosure: Lessons from the AT&T/Time Warner Case, Review of Industrial Organization

Judicial Response to the 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines, with Howard Shelanski, Review of Industrial Organization

The 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines After 10 Years, with Joseph Farrell, Review of Industrial Organization

2020

Restoring Competition in the United States: A Vision for Antitrust Enforcement for the Next Administration and Congress, with Bill Baer, Jonathan B. Baker, Michael Kades, Fiona Scott Morton, Nancy L. Rose, and Tim Wu, Washington Center for Equitable Growth, November

The Role of Antitrust in Preventing Patent Holdup, with Mark A. Lemley, University of Pennsylvania Law Review

Joint Response to the House Judiciary Committee on the State of Antitrust Law and the Implications for Protecting Competition in Digital Markets, April 30,2020

Comment on DOJ/FTC Draft Vertical Merger Guidelines.

2019

Protecting Competition in the American Economy: Merger Control, Tech Titans, Labor Markets, Journal of Economic Perspectives

Antitrust and Innovation: Welcoming and Protecting Disruption, with Giulio Federico and Fiona Scott Morton, Innovation Policy and the Economy, National Bureau of Economic Research

2018

Antitrust in a Time of Populism, International Journal of Industrial Organization

The Protecting Competition Standard, FTC Hearings on Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century, November

Horizontal Mergers, Market Structure, and Burdens of Proof, with Herbert Hovenkamp, Yale Law Journal

How Antitrust Law Can Make FRAND Commitments More Effective, with A. Douglas Melamed, Yale Law Journal

2017

The Consumer Welfare Standard in Antitrust, Statement Before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Antitrust Subcommittee

Whither Antitrust Enforcement in the Trump Administration?, with Steven Salop, Antitrust Source

Berkeley Patent Damages Workshop Report, with Stuart Graham, Peter Menell and Tim Simcoe, Texas Intellectual Property Law Journal

Property Rules vs. Liability Rules for Patent Infringement, Working Paper

2016

Patent Remedies, American Economic Review, Papers & Proceedings

Patent Assertions: Are We Any Closer to Aligning Reward to Contribution? with Fiona Scott Morton, Innovation Policy and the Economy, National Bureau of Economic Research

2015

TYe Actavis Inference: Theory and Practice, with Aaron Edlin, Scott Hemphill, and Herbert Hovenkamp, Rutgers University Law Review

Jean Tirole's Nobel Prize in Economics: The Rigorous Foundations of Post-Chicago Antitrust Economics, with Steven Salop, Antitrust Magazine

2014

Actavis and Error Costs: A Reply to Critics, with Aaron Edlin, Scott Hemphill, and Herbert Hovenkamp, Antitrust Source

Strategic Patent Acquisitions, with Fiona Scott Morton, Antitrust Law Journal

2013

Activating Actavis, with Aaron Edlin, Scott Hemphill, and Herbert Hovenkamp, Antitrust Magazine

A Simple Approach to Setting Reasonable Royalties for Standard-Essential Patents, with Mark Lemley, Berkeley Technology Law Journal

2012

Competition and Innovation: Did Arrow Hit the Bull's Eye?, in The Rate & Direction of Economic Activity Revisited, Josh Lerner and Scott Stern, eds.

2010

The 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines: From Hedgehog to Fox in Forty Years, Antitrust Law Journal

The Year in Review: Economics at the Antitrust Division: 2009-2010, with Ken Heyer, Review of Industrial Organization

Injunctions, Hold-Up, and Patent Royalties American Law and Economics Review

Recapture, Pass-Through, and Market Definition, with Joseph Farrell, Antitrust Law Journal

Antitrust Evaluation of Horizontal Mergers: An Economic Alternative to Market Definition, with Joseph Farrell, B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics: Policies and Perspectives

Upward Pricing Pressure in Horizontal Merger Analysis: Reply to Epstein and Rubinfeld, with Joseph Farrel, B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics: Policies and Perspectives

Upward Pricing Pressure and Critical Loss Analysis, with Joseph Farrell, Competition Policy International Antitrust Journal

In Honor of Oliver Williamson: Antitrust Economics, California Management Review

2009

The Year in Review: Economics at the Antitrust Division: 2008-2009, with Ken Heyer and Jeffrey Wilder, Review of Industrial Organization

Updating the Merger Guidelines, ABA Antitrust Section, Fall Forum

Competition Policy in Distressed Industries, ABA Symposium, Competition as Public Policy

Microsoft: A Remedial Failure, Antitrust Law Journal

2008

Detecting and Reversing the Decline in Horizontal Merger Enforcement, with Jonathan Baker, Antitrust Magazine

Merger to Monopoly to Serve a Single Buyer: Comment, with Jonathan Baker and Joseph Farrell, Antitrust Law Journal

Improving Critical Loss, with Joseph Farrell, Antitrust Source

Reinvigorating Horizontal Merger Enforcement, with Jonathan Baker, in How the Chicago School Overshot the Mark: The Effect of Conservative Economic Analysis on U.S. Antitrust, Robert Pitofsky, ed., Oxford University Press.

How Strong Are Weak Patents?, with Joseph Farrell, American Economic Review

2007

Standard Setting, Patents, and Hold-Up, with Joseph Farrell, John Hayes and Theresa Sullivan, Antitrust Law Journal

Patent Reform: Aligning Reward and Contribution, Innovation Policy and the Economy, National Bureau of Economic Research

Antitrust, with Louis Kaplow, Chapter 15, in Handbook of Law and Economics, Volume 2

Patent Hold-Up and Royalty Stacking, with Mark A. Lemley, Texas Law Review

The Design and Use of Patents, IESE-BBVA Prize Lecture, Madrid, Spain

Market Definition in Crude Oil: Estimating the Effects of the BP/Arco Merger, with John Hayes and Robert Town, Antitrust Bulletin

2006

Prior User Rights, American Economic Review Papers & Proceedings

2005

Antitrust and Innovation, Testimony Before the Antitrust Modernization Commission

Exclusionary Conduct, Testimony Before the Antitrust Modernization Commission

Probabilistic Patents, with Mark A. Lemley, Journal of Economics Perspectives

2004

Patent System Reform: Economic Analysis and Critique, Berkeley Technology Law Journal

Further Thoughts on Critical Loss, with Michael L. Katz, Antitrust Source

The Economics of Information Technology, with Hal R. Varian and Joseph Farrell, Cambridge University Press

2003

Antitrust Analysis of Patent Settlements Between Rivals, Antitrust Magazine

Antitrust Limits to Patent Settlements, Rand Journal of Economics

Critical Loss: Let's Tell the Whole Story, with Michael L. Katz, Antitrust Magazine

The BP Amoco/ARCO Merger: Alaskan Crude Oil, with Jeremy Bulow, in The Antitrust Revolution, John Kwoka and Lawrence White, eds.

The FTC's Challenge to Intel's Cross-Licensing Practices, in The Antitrust Revolution, John Kwoka and Lawrence White, eds.

2002

Competition Policy and Innovation, Report for the OECD

Antitrust Policy in the Clinton Administration, with Robert E. Litan, in American Economic Policy in the 1990s,

2001

Scale Economies and Synergies in Horizontal Merger Analysis, with Joseph Farrell, Antitrust Law Journal,

Setting Compatibility Standards: Cooperation or Collusion?, in Expanding the Bounds of Intellectual Property,

Trans-Atlantic Divergence in GE/Honeywell: Causes and Lessons, with Donna E. Patterson, Antitrust Magazine,

2000

Navigating the Patent Thicket: Cross Licenses, Patent Pools, and Standard Setting, Innovation Policy and the Economy, National Bureau of Economic Research

Competition Policy: A Century of Economic and Legal Thinking, with William Kovacic, Journal of Economic Perspectives

Competition Policy in the Information Economy, in Competition Policy Analysis,

1999

Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy, with Hal R. Varian, Harvard Business School Press

The Art of Standards Wars, with Hal R. Varian, California Management Review

Exclusivity in Network Industries, George Mason Law Review,

Antitrust in Software Markets, with Michael L. Katz, in Competition, Innovation, and the Microsoft Monopoly,

1998 and Earlier

Versioning: The Smart Way to Sell Information, with Hal R. Varian, Harvard Business Review, 1998

Antitrust Issues in the Licensing of Intellectual Property: The Nine No-Nos Meet the Nineties, with Richard J. Gilbert, Brookings Papers on Economics: Microeconomics, 1997

Mergers with Differentiated Products, Antitrust Magazine, 1996

Antitrust in Network Industrties, Speech as Deputy Assistant Attorney General, January 1996


Testimony as an Expert Witness in Antitrust Cases

Since returning to Berkeley in 2012 after his government service, Shapiro has testified on behalf of the government in a number of important antitrust enforcement actions, including the FTC's case against Qualcomm and the challenge by a group of states to the merger between T-Mobile and Sprint.

Shapiro testified in 2002 in the Microsoft case on behalf of a group of States that were seeking stronger remedies than the U.S. Department of Justice had accepted in settlement. See his 2009 paper, “Microsoft: A Remedial Failure.”

A list of Shapiro's antitrust testimony since 2012.

Shapiro's disclosure of entities providing significant financial support.


Personal

Nature Photography

I am a lover of the outdoors and a lifelong environmentalist.

Glacier National Park

Canyonlands

Sea Ranch

I have a deep attachment to Sea Ranch, a unique place on the Sonoma coast.

My 2024 candidate statements for the Sea Ranch Board of Directors

Here are a few of my photographs of Sea Ranch.

Iconic Sea Ranch View with Flowers

High Surf at Sea Ranch

High Four on Black Point Beach

Old Hedgerow

Sun Rays and Cypress Trees

Cormorant Guarding Nest on Cliff

Seal Mother and Pup

Sheep at Black Point

Sea Ranch Chapel Stained Glass Window

Kira

I also dearly love my dog, Kira.

Picture of Kira