View source for Hal Varian

{{Short description|American economist}}
{{Infobox economist
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 <!-- Economist Category -->
 | school_tradition = [[Neoclassical economics]]

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 | image       = AEA 2025 - Hal Varian 01.jpg
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 | name             = Hal Varian
 | birth_date       = {{Birth date and age|1947|3|18}}
 | birth_place      = [[Wooster, Ohio]], U.S.
 | death_date       =
 | death_place      =
 | nationality      = American
 | institution      = [[University of California, Berkeley]]<br>[[MIT]]
 | field            = [[Microeconomics]], [[information technology]]
 |doctoral_advisor  = [[Daniel McFadden]]<br>[[David Gale]]
 |doctoral_students = [[Earl Grinols]]<br>[[James Andreoni]]<br />[[Cyrus Chu]]
 | influences       =
 | contributions    =
| repec_prefix = e | repec_id = pva5
|education=[[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]<br />[[University of California, Berkeley]]}}
'''Hal Ronald Varian''' (born March 18, 1947, in [[Wooster, Ohio]]) is [[Chief Economist|chief economist]] at [[Google]] and holds the title of emeritus professor at the [[University of California, Berkeley]] where he was founding dean of the [[UC Berkeley School of Information|School of Information]]. Varian is an economist specializing in [[microeconomics]] and [[information 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Zuboff |first=Shoshana |author-link=Shoshana Zuboff|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lRqrDQAAQBAJ |title=The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power |date=2020 |publisher=PublicAffairs |isbn=978-1-61039-570-0 |pages=64 |language=en}}</ref>

==Early life==
Hal Varian was born on March 18, 1947, in [[Wooster, Ohio]]. He received his [[B.S.]] from [[MIT]] in economics in 1969 and both his [[Master of Arts|M.A.]] in mathematics and [[Ph.D.]] in economics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1973.

==Career==
Varian taught at [[MIT]], [[Stanford University]], the [[University of Oxford]], the [[University of Michigan]], the [[University 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 the [[Karlsruhe Institute of Technology]] (KIT), Germany, awarded in 2006. He is emeritus professor at the [[University of California, Berkeley]], where he was founding dean of the [[UC Berkeley School of Information|School of Information]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~hal/|title=Hal R. Varian|publisher=U.C. Berkeley|access-date=2010-10-22}}</ref>

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'',<ref>{{cite book|author=Varian, Hal R|title=Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach: Ninth International Student Edition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A0feCgAAQBAJ|year=2014|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|isbn=978-0-393-92077-2}}</ref> an undergraduate microeconomics text, and  ''Microeconomic Analysis'', an advanced text aimed primarily at first-year graduate students in economics. Together with [[Carl Shapiro]], he co-authored [[Information Rules|''Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy'']] and ''The Economics of Information Technology: An Introduction''.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Hal R. Varian|author2=Joseph Farrell|author3=Carl Shapiro|title=The Economics of Information Technology: An Introduction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LpgoKtzhzVEC|date=23 December 2004|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-60521-2}}</ref> According to the [[Open Syllabus Project]], Varian is the fourth most frequently cited author on college syllabi for economics courses.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://opensyllabus.org/results-list/authors?size=50&fields=Economics | title=Open Syllabus Project | access-date=2020-01-24 | archive-date=2022-09-21 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220921150129/https://opensyllabus.org/results-list/authors?size=50&fields=Economics | url-status=dead }}</ref>

In September 2023, Varian was called to testify in the ''[[United States v. Google LLC (2020)|United States v. Google]]'' lawsuit by the [[United States Department of Justice|Department 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".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Feiner |first=Lauren |date=2023-09-12 |title=Google engaged in a monopolistic feedback loop to maintain search dominance, DOJ alleges in first day of trial |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/12/doj-v-google-what-hapened-the-first-day-of-the-anti-monopoly-trial.html |access-date=2023-09-16 |website=CNBC |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Robertson |first=Adi |date=2023-09-15 |title=In the Google antitrust trial, defaults are everything and nobody likes Bing |url=https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/15/23875342/justice-department-google-antitrust-search-trial-week-one-recap |access-date=2023-09-16 |website=The Verge |language=en-US}}</ref> 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.",<ref name=":0" /> to avoid Google from being perceived as being a monopoly and to avoid scrutiny from antitrust watchdogs.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Belanger |first=Ashley |date=2023-09-14 |title=Google hid evidence by training workers to avoid words monopolists use, DOJ says |url=https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/09/google-hid-evidence-by-training-workers-to-avoid-words-monopolists-use-doj-says/ |access-date=2023-09-16 |website=Ars Technica |language=en-us}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Varian is married and has one child, Christopher Max Varian.<ref name="CV">[http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~hal/people/hal/vitae.pdf Curriculum vitae] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208153139/http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~hal/people/hal/vitae.pdf |date=2015-12-08 }} (PDF; 122&nbsp;kB), on [http://www.berkeley.edu berkeley.edu].</ref>

==See also==
* [[Varian Rule]]
* [[Varian's theorems]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://sims.berkeley.edu/~hal/ Hal Varian's Website]
* [http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~hal/Papers/2006/position.pdf Position Auctions]
* {{cite web |last=Roberts |first=Russ |title=Varian on Technology |url=http://www.econtalk.org/archives/_featuring/hal_varian/ |work=[[EconTalk]] |publisher=[[Library of Economics and Liberty]] |author-link=Russ Roberts |date=July 28, 2008}}
*{{Google Scholar id|WbYQGjcAAAAJ}}
*{{cite web|title=Hal Varian|url=https://www.jstor.org/action/doBasicSearch?Query=au%3A%22Hal+Varian%22|publisher=[[JSTOR]]}}
*{{C-SPAN|80744}}

{{Google LLC}}
{{Neoclassical economists}}
{{John von Neumann Award recipients}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Varian, Hal}}
[[Category:1947 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:People from Wooster, Ohio]]
[[Category:Haas School of Business faculty]]
[[Category:Google employees]]
[[Category:Microeconomists]]
[[Category:20th-century American economists]]
[[Category:21st-century American economists]]
[[Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty]]
[[Category:University of Michigan faculty]]
[[Category:Stanford University faculty]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Econometric Society]]
[[Category:MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences alumni]]
[[Category:UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:Distinguished fellows of the American Economic Association]]
[[Category:Economists from Ohio]]
[[Category:University of California, Berkeley School of Information faculty]]
[[Category:Fair division researchers]]