Biography
Scott's Substack Podcast Interview with Ariel Pakes
Ariel Pakes is the Thomas Professor of Economics in the department of economics at Harvard University, where he teaches courses in Industrial Organization and Econometrics. Prior to that he held tenured positions at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, The University of Wisconsin, and a chaired position at Yale University. He received his B.A. and M.A. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1971 and 1973 and an M.A. and PhD from Harvard University in 1976 and 1979.
Ariel received the Frisch Medal of the Econometric Society in 1986. He was elected as a fellow of that society in 1988, of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2002, and of the National Academy of Sciences in 2017. Ariel was the Distinguished Fellow of the Industrial Organization in 2007. In 2017 he received the Jean-Jacques Laffont prize for research that combines empirical work with theory. In 2018 Ariel shared the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Economics and Finance with Robert Porter and Tim Bresnahan. In 2019 Ariel received Global Competition Review annual award for prosecution of collusion and in 2020 Ariel was selected as a Web of Science laureate. In 2022 Ariel was awarded the Erwin Nemmers Prize in Economics and Finance, honored for his “fundamental contributions to the development of the field of empirical industrial organization as it is applied to the study of market power, prices, mergers and productivity.”.
Ariel’s research has focused on developing methods for empirically analyzing market responses to environmental and policy changes. These methods enable the analysis of the impacts of proposed policy changes to market institutions before they are introduced and so were of use to regulatory agencies as well as firms. They require a theoretical framework that is consistent with the empirical methodology, as the data alone cannot provide evidence on a counterfactual environment. This lead to the development of: i) demand systems that are capable of analyzing the impact of environmental or policy changes on demand and through demand on pricing incentives, ii) methods capable of analyzing the impact of policy changes (e.g. deregulation) on productivity, and iii) models capable of following the impacts of these changes on the evolution of markets over time.
The availability of these tools also enabled a deeper understanding of the causes of prior events. Ariel and his co-authors have applied them to the analysis of issues in the auto, electricity, health care, telecommunications equipment, and pharmaceutical industries. Ariel also developed techniques for: analyzing the impacts of privately funded research and development activity, evaluating the private value of patents, and for constructing a more accurate Consumer Price Index.
Many of Ariel’s methodological contributions have been incorporated into the work of government agencies and private firms. Ariel has mentored over seventy doctoral students, many of whom are now leading researchers at prestigious universities.
Ariel is married with two children and two granddaughters. They all enjoy hiking, jazz, and watching the NBA.