Professor Hal Varian is currently serving as the Dean of the School Information Management and Systems.  His recent research involves the economics of information technology and information economics, which deals with things such as the Internet, software, books, and videos.

        The failure of AT&T’s Picturephone in 1970 is a major event that motivated Professor Varian to study network economics.  The Picturephone was a breakthrough in personal video communication, giving AT&T high expectations for the product.  Professor Varian, along with many others during that time, wanted to know why the Picturephone failed.  It turns out that the Picturephone’s lack of success has much to do with network economics.  The Picturephone’s failure to gain popularity in its introductory phase hurt AT&T’s chances of selling the product later in the future.  As innovative as the product was, no one was going to spend money on a communications product that wasn’t in widespread use.  A Picturephone is useless if no one else has the same technology!

        Much of Professor Varian’s advice on how to formulate and answer economic research questions can be found in his article, “ How To Build An Economic Model In Your Spare Time.”  He suggests that students search for research questions by looking closely at things that interest them.  Instead of reading academic journals to find a viable topic, students should read the newspaper, watch television, and speak to their friends about questions that strike their curiosity.

        For his work on the economics of information technology, Professor Varian gathers his own data by calling companies and surveying them.  He seeks information concerning how a particular technology has affected a company’s operations, such as an estimate of the cost-savings associated with the use of a technology.  This can be a very difficult task because companies aren’t always willing to give out information regarding their costs.   He says that it is acceptable for a student to gather his or her own data by writing and administering their own survey if they are having trouble finding data relevant to their research topic.  He recommends that students who are conducting their own primary research should try and use proper sampling and research methods if possible.

        Professor Varian has a busy schedule next semester and is currently unsure if he can advise a thesis.  If available, he would be a great advisor for anyone interested the economics of information technology and information economics. Aside from being a prominent expert in those fields, he is approachable and does an excellent job of articulating his ideas.   After reading several of his academic papers, it is apparent that he seeks to keep his writing simple, interesting, and understandable; something many economists fail to do.
 

    Leaving econometrics ten minutes early, I embarked towards the School of information management and systems. For those unacquainted with South Hall, the building evokes images from the opening scene of PBS’ Mystery series and was once home to the infamous weather forecasting captain in Disney’s Mary Poppins. A veritable haunted house, fitted with pointed roofs and red tile on the outside, the building is one of the school’s technological jewels, retrofitted with the latest computer technology, what Dean Varian calls the “bleeding edge of technology” (Varian, 7). Similar to the technology in the building hosting him, Dean Varian remains a modest economic hero within the school of information management and systems.

    Yet why did Dean Varian decide to write his textbooks, and why did he choose to write paper’s ranging from microeconomic modeling to the economics of information? Actually, the idea for a textbook never really occurred to him; fresh out of Berkeley, and asked to teach a microeconomic course at MIT without a textbook, Dean Varian prepared a salable series of notes for his course. Opportunity came knocking when a publisher at MIT happened to ask Dean Varian whether the Professor had anything to publish. Before Professor Varian could finish apologizing for not having anything ready at the time, the publisher questioned the manuscript atop Professor Varian’s desk. One year later Microeconomic Analysis was published, and is now in its fourth edition.

    Yet when it comes to publishing papers, Dean Varian takes a slightly more involved approach. Start out with a problem, not from economic journals, or economic seminars, but an everyday problem, suggests Dean Varian in his article “How to build an economic model in your spare time.” One of Dean Varian’s favorite papers was a sales model based on the frustration of buying a new television amidst a jungle of sales and discounts: simple problem, satisfying results. The majority of Dean Varian’s later work has revolved around the “bleeding edge of technology” (7). Often perceived as a “computer nerd” (7), Dean Varian has recently co-authored a book with his research assistant Carl Shapiro, Information Rules, and the title remains in the Amazon.com top 100 list after enjoying the honor for over a year. His own book published in “twelve or thirteen” languages, Dean Varian felt that the majority of publications attacking the internet quagmire either lacked substance, or were directed towards those at the heart of information technology, those literate in English, and Java. As such, Dean Varian decided that economists and business administrators alike needed a comprehensive guide to the cause and effects of modern technology in an economic context, sufficiently concise to satisfy the business man, yet sufficiently enlightening for those in the industry.

    Although seated amongst an intimidating mountain of books, Dean Varian is one of the more approachable Professors at Berkeley. In fact, the majority of this very interview took place on a cross-campus walk towards café-Milano in search of herbal-tea refreshments, which in itself testifies to the simple nature of veritable economic Erasmus.