Richard Schmalensee

Richard Schmalensee is a Professor Emeritus at MIT Sloan School of Management and former Dean (1998–2007). He specializes in industrial organization economics, energy policy, and antitrust issues. His research addresses regulatory frameworks for electricity markets, energy storage, and climate policy. Schmalensee has advised the U.S. government, including the President’s Council of Economic Advisers (1989–1991), and serves on boards such as the National Bureau of Economic Research. He co-authored the influential Handbook of Industrial Organization and leads studies like MIT’s Future of Energy Storage.

Research Interests: Industrial organization, antitrust policy, energy economics, environmental policy, and regulatory design for electricity systems. Recent work focuses on decarbonization strategies, grid modernization, and renewable energy integration.

Key Roles: Director of MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (12 years), Board Chair of Resources for the Future (RFF), and member of the American Economic Association Executive Committee. Current affiliations include MIT Energy Initiative and the Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change.

Publications: Over 120 articles and 11 books, including seminal works on electricity regulation, antitrust analysis of platforms, and energy storage systems. Recent articles address time-of-use pricing, grid resilience, and policy implications of renewables-dominant power systems.

Awards: Fellowships from Econometric Society and American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2012 Distinguished Fellow of the Industrial Organization Society.