Bruce M. Owen (born October 13, 1943, in Worcester, Massachusetts) is an economist and author.[1] Owen is the Morris M. Doyle Professor in Public Policy, Emeritus, in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University, and the Gordon Cain Senior Fellow, Emeritus, in Stanford's Institute for Economic Policy Research.[2]
In 1979, Owen became chief economist of the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice, where he played a key role in the ultimate deregulation of AT&T.[6] During the landmark trial of the breakup of AT&T (American Telephone & Telegraph), Owen testified as the Chief Economist of the US Justice Department. He presented compelling economic analysis that AT&T was in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. The outcome of the trial was that AT&T was indeed a monopoly and Judge Greene ordered that AT&T therefore must allow competitors into the communication industry. From that point on, the prices of telecommunications fell, not only for governments and businesses, but for the average telephone user around the world.
Owen entered the private sector with the 1981 co-founding of Economists Incorporated, a consulting firm. He served as president and chairman of the board of the company until his retirement in 2003. During this time, Owen also taught an undergraduate seminar on economic analysis of law at Stanford's Washington, D.C. campus from 1989 to 2002.[7] Economists Incorporated is now a division of Secretariate.
Owen served as the Gordon Cain Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) from 2003 - 2015 and as the Morris M. Doyle Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Public Policy Program at Stanford from 2005 - 2015. He proposed and oversaw the addition of a Masters degree offering in the program.
