Daniel Rubinfeld was formerly a professor of economics and law at the University of Michigan before he joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1983. From 1987 to 1990, he was the chair of the Jurisprudence and Social Policy program and served as the associate dean and chair of the program from 1998 to 2000. Throughout his career, he has served with the President's Council of Economic Advisors, the National Academy of Sciences, the Urban Institute, and the National Bureau of Economic Research. Professor Rubinfeld also served as a deputy assistant attorney general for antitrust in the US Department of Justice. From his experience as deputy assistant attorney general, he developed a great deal of interest in antitrust and competition policy. He helped the government bring the case against Microsoft for being a monopoly power in the software industry. Professor Rubinfeld also spends his time studying the economics analysis of the legal process. From past experience testifying in legal proceedings, he wondered how to make the legal system run more efficiently, and has written numerous publications about how to change legal rules. In addition, Professor Rubinfeld is interested in economic federalism, which deals with which level of government should handle certain economic acts – the local, state, or federal levels.

From his experience researching antitrust and competition policy, the legal process, and federalism, Professor Rubinfeld gathers a great deal of data by using a “branching out” method, or so he calls it. One simply looks at a bibliography of a publication and then researches the works that are listed. From time, there will be a lot of writings to gather information from. The other sources he frequently visits are the US census (for government data), the Social Science Research Network, and Information Resources Incorporated (for information on the prices of goods sold in the market).