Bruce M. Owen (born October 13, 1943, in Worcester, Massachusetts) is an economist and author.[1] 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.[2]
Bruce M. Owen | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | October 13, 1943 Worcester, Massachusetts |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Economist |
| Known for | Deregulation of AT&T |
Early life and education
editOwen graduated with a BA from Williams College in 1965, where he was a merit scholar, and subsequently earned his PhD in Economics from Stanford University in 1970. At Stanford, Owen was a Woodrow Wilson fellow, National Defense Education Act Title IV fellow, and Brookings Institution Economic Policy fellow.[3]
Career
editOwen acted as chief economist in the White House Office of Telecommunications Policy in 1971 before returning to Stanford University in 1973 to serve as assistant professor of economics.[4] From 1974 to 1975, Owen was a Hoover Institution national fellow.
In 1978, Owen moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where he briefly taught at Duke University as associate professor of business and law. During this time, Owen was an Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies fellow and chairman of the task force on the future of the United States Postal Service.[5]
In 1979, Owen became chief economist of the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice, where he played a key role in the ultimate deregulation of AT&T.[6] During the landmark trial of the breakup of AT&T (American Telephone & Telegraph), Owen testified as the Chief Economist of the US Justice Department. He presented compelling economic analysis that AT&T was in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. The outcome of the trial was that AT&T was indeed a monopoly and Judge Greene ordered that AT&T therefore must allow competitors into the communication industry. From that point on, the prices of telecommunications fell, not only for governments and businesses, but for the average telephone user around the world.
Owen entered the private sector with the 1981 co-founding of Economists Incorporated, a consulting firm. He served as president and chairman of the board of the company until his retirement in 2003. During this time, Owen also taught an undergraduate seminar on economic analysis of law at Stanford's Washington, D.C. campus from 1989 to 2002.[7] Economists Incorporated is now a division of Secretariate.
Owen served as the Gordon Cain Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) from 2003 - 2015 and as the Morris M. Doyle Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Public Policy Program at Stanford from 2005 - 2015. He proposed and oversaw the addition of a Masters degree offering in the program.
Owen is a member of the American Economic Association, the Econometric Society, the American Law and Economics Association, an associate of the American Bar Association, and a consultant to the World Bank.
Books
edit- Television Economics (1974)
- Economics and Freedom of Expression' (1975)
- The Regulation Game (1978)
- The Political Economy of Deregulation (1983)
- Video Economics (1992)
- Electric Utility Mergers: Principles of Antitrust Analysis (1994)
- The Economics of a Disaster: The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (1995)
- The Internet Challenge to Television (1999)
- Madison's Missing Branch: How Americans Can Reduce Their Pain From Political Corruption in Washington (Kindle) 2021
Personal life
editOwen is married to Josetta Owen and has two adult children, Bradford Kelly (born 1974), and Peter Brandon (born 1969).
References
edit- ^ Bruce M. Owen (January 2, 2003). "Statement on Media Ownership Rules" (PDF). Retrieved July 5, 2014.
- ^ "Public Policy Program at Stanford University, Staff". Archived from the original on December 4, 2000. Retrieved May 12, 2014.
- ^ FCC Internet Services Staff (October 29, 2001). "Biographies of Panelists at Roundtable on Media Ownership Policies". FCC. Retrieved September 5, 2013.
- ^ "SIEPR Faculty and Staff – Biographies – Bruce Owen". July 11, 2010. Archived from the original on July 11, 2010. Retrieved May 18, 2016.
- ^ Bruce M. Owen and Robert D. Willig (July 27, 2001). "Economics and Postal Pricing Policy" (PDF). Retrieved July 5, 2014.
- ^ "Story: Economist Says Internet Use is Stagnant". TechLawJournal. July 9, 1999. Retrieved September 5, 2013.
- ^ "Economists Incorporated". Archived from the original on August 23, 2003. Retrieved May 12, 2014.
External links
edit- Bruce M. Owen publications indexed by Google Scholar
- "Bruce M. Owen". JSTOR.