Professor Joseph Farrell has taught at the University of California, Berkeley since 1989.  His area of focus is Industrial Organization and he has held some extremely important government posts.  These positions include Deputy Assistant Attorney General and Chief Economist of the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice and Chief Economist of the Federal Communications Commission. Recent working papers include: "Competition or Predation? Schumpeterian Rivalry in Network Markets, "Renegotiation in Repeated Oligopoly Interaction" and "Innovation, Rent Extraction, and Integration in Systems Markets". Professor Farrell holds a Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctorate degree from Oxford University.

Currently Professor Farrell is working on several Industrial Organization research topics including one on network effects and another on cost cutting in the gold mining industry. When asked why he picked the gold mining industry to examine, Professor Farrell responded that he first asked a general theoretical question and then statistically examined different industries such as oil production until one that fit his criteria and would agree with his hypothesis.  According to Professor Farrell, his examination of the gold mining industry has important economy-wide implications.  His underlying general question is, when firms make profits, are they a form of social surplus or do they get wasted just because they are there?

Professor Farrell usually utilizes previously published data to support his research. However, he stated that he has created his own datasets though he prefers existing ones because gathering new data is difficult. On his current project related to the gold mining industry, he uses published market statistics on the value of gold.

Professor Farrell is an expert in the field of Industrial Organization.  He is a great theorist yet has applied his knowledge in a practical setting as a highly regarded government economist.