Michael Whinston, PhD

Michael Whinston is the Sloan Fellows Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Professor of Economics in the MIT Department of Economics. He is a leading expert in the fields of antitrust economics and regulation, industrial organization, and microeconomics. Dr. Whinston has consulted in cases involving a range of industries and issues, and served as a neutral expert in a price-fixing case.

Prior to joining the faculty at MIT in 2013, Dr. Whinston taught at Northwestern University and at Harvard University. He has held visiting positions at Oxford University, the University of Chicago, and Yale University, and also has served as a visiting economist in the Antitrust Division at the US Department of Justice.

Dr. Whinston has been awarded many honors over his academic career, including multiple National Science Foundation research grants and the 2008 Compass Lexecon Prize for his paper titled “Antitrust in Innovative Industries.” He has been named on the Lexology Index (formerly Who's Who Legal) list of leading competition economists since 2011 and recognized as a Lexology Index Competition Thought Leader since 2019. Dr. Whinston is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the Econometric Society, and an Alfred P. Sloan research fellow.

PhD, Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MBA, Finance, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

BS, Economics, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

• In United States et al. v. Google LLC, a civil antitrust suit, submitted expert reports and provided deposition and trial testimony on behalf of the Department of Justice. 
• On behalf of DuPont, analyzed likely effects of its proposed merger with Dow Chemical on innovation in markets for agricultural products.
• Provided expert analysis and testimony on behalf of DOJ in support of the Antitrust Division’s successful challenge of Electrolux’s proposed acquisition of General Electric’s major appliance business. 
• Submitted a report and provided deposition testimony in In re Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) Antitrust Litigation regarding certain defendants’ incentives to participate in the alleged price-fixing conspiracy. 
• Submitted reports and testified at preliminary and final International Trade Commission hearings in the matter Certain Oil Country Tubular Goods (OCTG) (USITC Inv. Nos. 701-TA-499-500 and 731-TA-1215-1223) demonstrating the deleterious effects of unfairly traded imports of OCTG, including lower levels of investment, profitability, and employment in the domestic oil industry. 

• Served as expert for the Competition Bureau of Canada in the proposed acquisition of the Toronto Stock Exchange (TMX), its rival electronic stock exchange Alpha, and the Canadian Depository for Securities Limited (CDS) by TMX Group Limited (formerly Maple Group Acquisition Corporation). Analyzed the extent to which the combined exchanges and depository would be able to exercise market power.

• Served as expert for the Competition Bureau of Canada in the proposed BHP Billiton/PotashCorp merger. Analyzed geographic pricing patterns to determine the degree to which foreign competitors would constrain the merged firm’s ability to raise prices in Canada following the merger.
• Served as principal economic expert in the Department of Justice investigation of Ticketmaster’s contracting practices, analyzing Ticketmaster’s use of exclusive contracts with music venues and evaluating their potential for anticompetitive harm and possible efficiency justifications.
• Provided a report and deposition testimony for several direct and indirect plaintiffs in In re Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) Antitrust Litigation analyzing supply, demand, and overcharges. 
• Testified before the Canadian Competition Tribunal on entry barriers and exclusive contracts in the Superior/ICG Propane merger.