Abstract
Paul Klemperer is a British economist born in 1956 who was an undergraduate at Cambridge University and did his graduate studies at Stanford University, where he obtained a PhD in 1986. He took up a post at St Catherine’s College, Oxford, in 1984, moving to Nuffield College in 1995 when he became the Edgeworth Professor of Economics in 1995. In his early years, his research focused on oligopoly theory, with his main contributions being on switching costs. From 1995, his interests moved on to auction theory and he became involved in applying his ideas to auction design, both as part of a team in the 2000 3G auction in the United Kingdom and later applying his own multi-product auction model to deal with the Bank of England’s auctions of loans to banks with different qualities of collateral assets in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
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Notes
- 1.
His family did not follow the musical career of his distant relative, the conductor Otto Klemperer.
- 2.
They were to marry in 1989 and have three children.
- 3.
Klemperer also contributed to the UK government’s 2006 Gowers Review of Intellectual Property.
- 4.
Bulow and Klemperer also use a similar marginal revenue approach to examine the effect of price controls on rent-seeking and consumer welfare (see Bulow and Klemperer 2012). They further highlighted the importance of attracting new entrants in their paper “Why Do Sellers (Usually) Prefer Auctions?” (Bulow and Klemperer 2009).
- 5.
For Klemperer’s view on the state of auction theory at the turn of the century, see Klemperer (1999).
- 6.
For example, Park et al. (2011: 118) argue that the ‘results show no evidence to support claims of negative effects of spectrum auctions [on consumers] in the mobile communications market’.
- 7.
The crisis is often thought of as beginning with the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, but the September 2007 Northern Rock bank run—Britain’s first bank run since the 1800s—was one of the early signs of trouble.
- 8.
The software can be downloaded at: http://pma.nuff.ox.ac.uk/.
- 9.
In addition to being the main (usually, only) supervisor of around 15 doctoral students who have gone on to Professorships, Klemperer supervised the Master’s theses that were the first research of many other students who went on to distinguished careers, such as Jon Levin, Eric Budish, and Shengwu Li (Professors at Stanford, Chicago, and Harvard, respectively, at the time of writing).
References
Main Works by Paul Klemperer
Baldwin, E. and P. Klemperer (2019). ‘Understanding Preferences: “Demand Types”, and the Existence of Equilibrium with Indivisibilities’. Econometrica, 87(3): 867–932.
Beggs, A. and P. Klemperer (1992). ‘Multi-Period Competition with Switching Costs’. Econometrica, 60(3): 651–666.
Binmore, K. and P. Klemperer (2002). ‘The Biggest Auction Ever: The Sale of the British 3G Telecom Licences’. Economic Journal, 112(478): C74–C96.
Bulow, J., J. Geanakoplos and P. Klemperer (1985a). ‘Multimarket Oligopoly: Strategic Substitutes and Complements’. Journal of Political Economy, 93(3): 488–511.
Bulow, J., J. Geanakoplos and P. Klemperer (1985b). ‘Holding Idle Capacity to Deter Entry’. Economic Journal, 95(377): 178–182.
Bulow, J., M. Huang and P. Klemperer (1999). ‘Toeholds and Takeovers’. Journal of Political Economy, 107(3): 427–454.
Bulow, J. and P. Klemperer (1994). ‘Rational Frenzies and Crashes’. Journal of Political Economy, 102(1): 1–23.
Bulow, J. and P. Klemperer (1996). ‘Auctions Versus Negotiations’. American Economic Review, 86(1): 180–194.
Bulow, J. and P. Klemperer (1998). ‘The Tobacco Deal’. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 29(Microeconomics): 323–394.
Bulow, J. and P. Klemperer (1999). ‘The Generalized War of Attrition’. American Economic Review, 89(1): 175–189.
Bulow, J. and P. Klemperer (2002). ‘Prices and the Winner’s Curse’. RAND Journal of Economics, 33(1): 1–21.
Bulow, J. and P. Klemperer (2009). ‘Why Do Sellers (Usually) Prefer Auctions?’. American Economic Review, 99(4): 1,544–1,575.
Bulow, J. and P. Klemperer (2012). ‘Regulated Prices, Rent Seeking, and Consumer Surplus’. Journal of Political Economy, 120(1): 160–186.
Bulow, J. and P. Klemperer (2015). ‘Equity Recourse Notes: Creating Counter-Cyclical Bank Capital’. Economic Journal, 125(586): F131–F157.
Cramton, P., R. Gibbons and P. Klemperer (1987). ‘Dissolving a Partnership Efficiently’. Econometrica, 55(3): 615–632.
Erdil, A. and P. Klemperer (2010). ‘A New Payment Rule for Core-Selecting Package Auctions’. Journal of the European Economic Association, 8(2/3): 537–547.
Froot, K. and P. Klemperer (1989). ‘Exchange Rate Pass-Through When Market Share Matters’. American Economic Review, 79(4): 637–654.
Gilbert, R. and P. Klemperer (2000). ‘An Equilibrium Theory of Rationing’. RAND Journal of Economics, 31(1): 1–21.
Klemperer, P. (1987a). ‘Markets with Consumer Switching Costs’. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 102(2): 375–394.
Klemperer, P. (1987b). ‘The Competitiveness of Markets with Switching Costs’. RAND Journal of Economics, 18(1): 138–150.
Klemperer, P. (1987c). ‘Entry Deterrence in Markets with Consumer Switching Costs’. Economic Journal, 97(Supplement): 99–117.
Klemperer, P. (1988). ‘Welfare Effects of Entry into Markets with Switching Costs’. Journal of Industrial Economics, 37(2): 159–165.
Klemperer, P. (1989). ‘Price Wars Caused by Switching Costs’. Review of Economic Studies, 56(3): 405–420.
Klemperer, P. (1990). ‘How Broad Should the Scope of Patent Protection Be?’. RAND Journal of Economics, 21(1): 113–130.
Klemperer, P. (1992). ‘Equilibrium Product Lines: Competing Head-to-Head May Be Less Competitive’. American Economic Review, 82(4): 740–755.
Klemperer, P. (1995a). ‘Competition When Consumers Have Switching Costs: An Overview with Applications to Industrial Organization, Macroeconomics, and International Trade’. Review of Economic Studies, 62(4): 515–539.
Klemperer, P. (1995b). ‘Comments on “Putting Auction Theory to Work”’. Discussant’s comments on Paul Milgrom’s 1995 Churchill Lectures, Working Paper, Oxford University.
Klemperer, P. (1998). ‘Auctions With Almost Common Values: The “Wallet Game” and Its Applications’. European Economic Review, 42(3–5): 757–769.
Klemperer, P. (1999). ‘Auction Theory: A Guide to the Literature’. Journal of Economic Surveys, 13(3): 227–286.
Klemperer, P. (2000). ‘Why Every Economist Should Learn Some Auction Theory’. Econometric Society World Congress lecture, 11 August. Available at: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/9fec/3d2db6feb81f8bc246fca7598a0aeadab125.pdf.
Klemperer, P. (2002a). ‘What Really Matters in Auction Design’. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 16(1): 169–189.
Klemperer, P. (2002b). ‘The Wrong Culprit for Telecom Trouble’. Financial Times, 26 November: 21.
Klemperer, P. (2002c). ‘How (Not) to Run Auctions: The European 3G Telecom Auctions’. European Economic Review, 46(4–5): 829–845.
Klemperer, P. (2003). ‘Alfred Marshall Lecture: Using and Abusing Economic Theory’. Journal of the European Economic Association, 1(2/3): 272–300.
Klemperer, P. (2004a). ‘America’s Patent Protection Has Gone Too Far’. Financial Times, 2 March: 19.
Klemperer, P. (2004b). Auctions: Theory and Practice. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Klemperer, P. (2007). ‘What Is the Top Priority on Climate Change?’. 13 December. Available at: https://voxeu.org/article/climate-change-innovation-key.
Klemperer, P. (2008). ‘A New Auction for Substitutes: Central-Bank Liquidity Auctions, “Toxic Asset” Auctions, and Variable Product-Mix Auctions’. Working Paper, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
Klemperer, P. (2010a). ‘The Product-Mix Auction: A New Auction Design for Differentiated Goods’. Journal of the European Economic Association, 8(2–3): 526–536.
Klemperer, P. (2010b). ‘What Is the Top Priority on Climate Change?’. Chapter 19 in H. Schellnhuber et al. (eds) Global Sustainability: A Nobel Cause. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 233–242.
Klemperer, P. (2018). ‘Product-Mix Auctions’. Working Paper, Nuffield College, Univesity of Oxford.
Klemperer, P. and J. McClenahan (1981). ‘Joint Strategic Planning Between Health and Local Authorities’. Omega, 9(5): 481–491.
Klemperer, P. and M. Meyer (1986). ‘Price Competition vs. Quantity Competition: The Role of Uncertainty’. RAND Journal of Economics, 17(4): 618–638.
Klemperer, P. and M. Meyer (1988). ‘Consistent Conjectures Equilibria: A Reformulation Showing Non-Uniqueness’. Economics Letters, 27(2): 111–115.
Klemperer, P. and M. Meyer (1989). ‘Supply Function Equilibria in Oligopoly Under Uncertainty’. Econometrica, 57(6): 1,243–1,277.
Klemperer, P. and A. Padilla (1997). ‘Do Firms’ Product Lines Include Too Many Varieties?’. RAND Journal of Economics, 28(3): 472–488.
Other Works Referred To
Bresnahan, T. (1981). ‘Duopoly Models with Consistent Conjectures’. American Economic Review, 71(5): 934–945.
Bulow, J. and J. Roberts (1989). ‘The Simple Economics of Optimal Auctions’. Journal of Political Economy, 97(5): 1,060–1,090.
Dixit, A. (1980). ‘The Role of Investment in Entry-Deterrence’. Economic Journal, 90(357): 95–106.
Osborn, A. (2000). ‘Consumers Pay the Price in 3G Auction’. The Guardian, 17 November: 33.
Park, M., S.-W. Lee and Y.-J. Choi (2011). ‘Does Spectrum Auctioning Harm Consumers? Lessons from 3G Licensing’. Information Economics and Policy, 23(1): 118–126.
Petropoulos, G. (2015). ‘Product-Mix Auction—How Auction Theory Came to the Rescue During the Banking Crisis: Interview with Paul Klemperer’. The TSEconomist. September. Available at: https://tseconomist.com/archive/september-2015/production-mix-auction-how-auction-theory-came-to-the-rescue-during-the-banking-crisis-interview-with-paul-klemperer/.
R.D. (2012). ‘A Golden Age of Micro’. The Economist (online). Available at: https://www.economist.com/free-exchange/2012/10/19/a-golden-age-of-micro.
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Dixon, H. (2021). Paul David Klemperer (1956–). In: Cord, R.A. (eds) The Palgrave Companion to Oxford Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58471-9_29
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