Joseph Harrington

Joseph Harrington is the Patrick T. Harker Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Professor Harrington is an internationally recognized expert on collusion, cartels, and competition policy. His research focuses on understanding observed collusive practices, developing observable markers of collusion, and designing competition policy to detect and deter collusion. His work has been presented before competition authorities throughout the world, including those of Chile, the European Union, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States. He has advised law firms, economic consultancies, and companies on the detection of cartels and the competitive implications of pricing algorithms and artificial intelligence.

Professor Harrington has published more than one hundred articles in leading journals and is the author or coauthor of books including Economics of Regulation and Antitrust (MIT Press, 5th edition), The Theory of Collusion and Competition Policy (MIT Press), Hub-and-Spoke Cartels: Why They Form, How They Operate, and How to Prosecute Them (MIT Press), and How Do Cartels Operate? (Now Publishers). His research has received awards including the Antitrust Writing Award for the Best Publication on Concerted Practices and the Jerry S. Cohen Memorial Fund Writing Award for the Best Publication on Information Exchanges. He has served as coeditor of the RAND Journal of Economics and International Journal of Industrial Organization and editor of Economics Letters. He served as president of the Industrial Organization Society and as a member of its board of directors. Professor Harrington has given lectures on collusion and cartels, including the Bayard Wickliffe Heath Memorial Lecture at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, Conference Policy Lecture at the European Conference in Competition and Regulation, and plenary talks at annual meetings of the European Association for Industrial Economists (EARIE), Chilean Economic Association, and German Economic Association.

Professor Harrington previously was professor of Economics at Johns Hopkins University, where he served as department chair from 2007 to 2012 and founded and chaired the MA Program in Applied Economics. He has been a visiting professor and scholar at Harvard University, Northwestern University, the European University Institute, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, and the Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance, among others. He holds a PhD in economics from Duke University and a BA from the University of Virginia.

Professor Harrington may be contacted by email through Ai Deng, a managing director at BRG.