Bruce Owen

Bio

Bruce M. Owen is the Morris M. Doyle Professor in Public Policy, Emeritus, in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University, and the Gordon Cain Senior Fellow, Emeritus, in Stanford's Institute for Economic Policy Research. For a decade ending in 2015 he was Director of the Stanford Public Policy Program. Professor Owen in 2007 led a successful effort to institute a new masters’ degree program in public policy (MPP) at Stanford. He earlier established an international reputation as an expert on antitrust economics, and was the leading academic student of the economics of mass media markets. He is regarded as a principal architect of the 1974 U.S. Department of Justice antitrust lawsuit that led to the eventual dissolution of the old Bell System, and he testified at the trial of the case in 1981. At Stanford, he has taught courses in economic analysis of law, telecommunications law and policy, and political corruption.
Until 2003, Owen was CEO of Economists Incorporated, a Washington DC consulting firm specializing in antitrust and regulatory policy analysis. Before co-founding Economists Incorporated in 1981, he was the Chief Economist of the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and, earlier, of the White House Office of Telecommunications Policy. He was also a faculty member in the Schools of Business and Law at Duke University and the department of economics at Stanford University. Owen was graduated from Williams College in 1965 with a B.A. in economics and from Stanford in 1970 with a Ph.D., also in economics. He was a Woodrow Wilson Fel-low.
Professor Owen was the author or co-author of numerous articles and eight books, including Television Economics (1974), Economics and Freedom of Expression (1975), The Regulation Game (1978), The Political Economy of Deregulation (1983), Video Economics (1992) and Electric Utility Mergers: Principles of Antitrust Analysis (1994). He was an expert witness in several antitrust and regulatory proceedings. In addition to United States v. AT&T, these included United States Football League v. National Football League, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission review of Southern California Edison’s proposed acquisition of San Diego Gas and Electric Co.
In 1992 Owen headed a World Bank task force that advised Argentina's government in drafting a new antitrust law. He also advised government agencies in Mexico and the U.S. on telecommunications policy and in Peru on antitrust policy. He was a consultant to the World Bank concerning the economic evaluation of legal and judicial reform projects. His most recent book, The Internet Challenge to Television, was published by Harvard University Press in 1999.
In recent years, Professor Owen has turned to the economic analysis of Madisonian remedies for the adverse effects of lawful political corruption in the U.S. He published “’To Promote the General Welfare' - Addressing Political Corruption in America,” British Journal of Ameri-can Legal Studies, in 2016. He is now working on a book with the working title “Madison’s Missing Branch,” a draft is available at SSRN.

Academic Appointments

• Emeritus Faculty, Acad Council, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research

Administrative Appointments

• Doyle Professor in Public Policy, Stanford University (2005 - 2015)
• Chief Economist, White House Office of Telecommunications Policy (1969 - 1972)
• Chief Economist, U.S. Dept. of Justice Antitrust Division (1979 - 1981)
• Assistant Professor of Economics, Stanford University (1973 - 1978)
• Associate Professor, Duke University (1978 - 1981)
• Visiting Professor, Stanford in Washington, Stanford University (1985 - 2003)
• CEO, Economists Inc. (1981 - 2003)
• Director, Public Policy Program, Stanford University (2005 - 2015)

Honors & Awards

• Woodrow Wilson Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Foundation (1965)
• Lifetime Teaching Achievement Award, Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences (2016)

Program Affiliations

• Public Policy

Professional Education

• B.A., Williams College, Williamstown MA, Economics (1965)
• PhD, Stanford University, Economics (1970)