Carl Shapiro
University of California, Berkeley
Contact Information
cshapiro@berkeley.edu
Haas School of Business
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-1900
cshapiro@berkeley.edu
Haas School of Business
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-1900
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 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.
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
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
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
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
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
Comment on DOJ/FTC Draft Vertical Merger Guidelines.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Competition and Innovation: Did Arrow Hit the Bull's Eye?, in The Rate & Direction of Economic Activity Revisited, Josh Lerner and Scott Stern, eds.
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
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
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
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
Prior User Rights, American Economic Review Papers & Proceedings
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
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
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.
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,
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,
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,
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,
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
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.
I am a lover of the outdoors and a lifelong environmentalist.
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 Four on Black Point Beach
Cormorant Guarding Nest on Cliff
Sea Ranch Chapel Stained Glass Window
I also dearly love my dog, Kira.