Expert

Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School

Ben Edelman is an Assistant Professor in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets unit at Harvard Business School. His current research explores the public and private forces shaping Internet architecture and business opportunities.

Professor Edelman recently has written about the implications of growing market concentration in Internet search and resulting risks for advertisers. Examining the mechanisms that allocate pay-per-click advertising, he compared the revenue of alternative pricing rules, quantifying the losses from early inefficient auction systems. He also has analyzed the stability and truth-telling properties of modern online advertising systems, and designed a simulated bidding environment to evaluate bidding strategies empirically.

In addition to his academic publications, Professor Edelman investigates and documents controversial online activities. In the area of online privacy, he uncovered unexpected transmissions by Google Toolbar, and he found Facebook disclosing certain user data to advertisers. He has also designed market mechanisms to mitigate the effects of scarcity of IPv4 addresses, and he flagged errors by Internet filtering systems in the U.S. and overseas. He frequently is sought out by traditional and online media sources for his opinions on all manner of online issues.

Professor Edelman holds an A.B. in Economics from Harvard College, an A.M. in Statistics from the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, a J.D. from the Harvard Law School, and a Ph.D. from the Department of Economics at Harvard University. He is a member of the Massachusetts Bar.

Education:

A.B. Economics, Harvard College
A.M. Statistics Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
J.D. Harvard Law School
Ph.D. Department of Economics Harvard University