Brian Viard

Dr. Brian Viard moved to Beijing in 2007 to join the faculty of Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB). Prior to that, he was a professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Professor Viard’s research focuses on industrial organization economics, environmental economics, and economics of strategy. He has studied the pricing, product, and entry strategies of firms in information and technology industries as well as how competition influences technology adoption and pricing. He has also studied whether switching costs make markets more or less competitive and the effectiveness of reward programs in creating switching costs.

Professor Viard’s recent work focuses primarily on environmental economics including the economic effects of China’s efforts to reduce automobile pollution, the effect of air pollution on manufacturing productivity, and how spillovers between Chinese cities affects efforts to reduce air pollution. Professor Viard teaches courses on competitive strategy, managerial economics, and digital products markets and is the recipient of CKGSB’s inaugural M.B.A. Best Teaching Award. He received his Ph.D. in Business Economics from the University of Chicago.

Areas of Expertise

Industrial Organization, Environmental Economics, Applied Microeconomics, Economics of Competitive Strategy

Positions

• Associate Professor (with tenure) of Strategy and Economics, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, March 2012 to present
• Associate Researcher, The University of Hong Kong, September 2020 to present.
• Member, Asia Innovation and Entrepreneurship Association, November 2020 to present.
• Visiting Associate Professor of Strategy and Economics, The University of Hong Kong, September 2019 to August, 2020.
• Visiting Scholar, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, April 2017 to October 2017
• Assistant Professor of Strategy and Economics, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, July 2007 to February 2012
• Visiting Assistant Professor of Strategy and Economics, Yale School of Management, April to May 2009.
• Assistant Professor of Strategic Management, Stanford Graduate School of Business, July 2000 to July 2007
• Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics, Yale School of Management, July 2005 to July 2006.
• Fletcher Jones Faculty Scholar, Stanford Graduate School of Business, September 2001 – June 2002
• Management Consultant, Deloitte & Touche, 1992-1995
• Systems Consultant, Andersen Consulting, 1987-1990

Education

• Ph.D. Business Economics, University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, August 2000
• M.B.A., Stanford Graduate School of Business, June 1992
• B. S. Electrical Engineering, Yale University, May 1987, cum laude

Publications

• “A Mayor’s Perspective on Tackling Air Pollution,” (with Shihe Fu) – invited chapter in C.K.Y. Leung (Ed.), Handbook of Real Estate and Macroeconomics (413 – 437). Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.
• “Trans-Boundary Air Pollution Spillovers: Physical Transport and Economic Costs by Distance” (with Shihe Fu and Peng Zhang), Journal of Development Economics, Vol. 155, 102808, March 2022.
• “Air Quality and Manufacturing Firm Productivity: Nationwide Estimates for China” (joint with Shihe Fu and Peng Zhang), The Economic Journal, Vol. 131, 3241 – 3273, November 2021.
• “Commute Costs and Labor Supply: Evidence from a Satellite Campus” (with Shihe Fu), Journal of Economic Geography, Vol. 19, No. 3, 723 – 752, May 2019.
• “The Effect of Beijing’s Driving Restrictions on Pollution and Economic Activity” (lead author with Shihe Fu), Journal of Public Economics, Vol. 125, 98 – 115, May 2015.
• Online Appendix: Click here
• “Bayesian Estimation of Nonlinear Equilibrium Models with Random Coefficients” (lead author with Anne Gron and Nicholas G. Polson), Applied Stochastic Models in Business and Industry, Vol. 31, No. 4, 435 – 456, July/August 2015.
• “The Effect of Content on Global Internet Adoption and the Global ‘Digital Divide‘” (lead author with Nicholas Economides)Management Science, 61, No. 3, 665 – 687, March 2015.
• Online Appendix: Click here
• “The Effect of Market Structure on Cellular Technology Adoption and Pricing” (with Katja Seim) American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, Vol. 3, No. 2, 221 – 251, May 2011.
• “Quantifying the Benefits of Entry into Local Phone Service” (with Nicholas Economides and Katja Seim) The RAND Journal of Economics, Vol. 39, No. 3, 699 – 730, Autumn 2008.
• “Do Frequency Reward Programs Create Switching Costs?” (with Wesley Hartmann) Quantitative Marketing and Economics, Vol. 6, No. 2, 109 – 137 (lead article), June 2008.
• “Do Switching Costs Make Markets More or Less Competitive?: The Case of 800-Number Portability” The RAND Journal of Economics, Vol. 38, No. 1, 146 – 163, Spring 2007.
• Working paper version with theoretical model: click here (Stanford GSB working paper #1773R1).
• “Information Goods Upgrades: Theory and Evidence” The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, Vol. 7, Issue 1 (Contributions), Article 3, 2007.
• “Recent Advances in Structural Econometric Modeling: Dynamics, Product Positioning and Entry” (with Jean-Pierre Dube, K. Sudhir, Andrew Chiang, Greg Crawford, Michaela Draganska, Jeremy Fox, Wesley Hartmann, Gunter Hitsch, Miguel Villas-Boas, and Naufel Vilcassim) invited in Marketing Letters, Vol. 16, Issue 3 – 4, December 2005, 209 – 224.
• “Pricing of Complements and Network Effects” (with Nicholas Economides) in Regulation and the Economic Performance of Communication and Information Networks, edited by Gary Madden, Edward Elgar, 2011.