”Our models are able to predict the likely impact of a merger”

Having received the 10th Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Economics, Finance and Management, economist Ariel Pakes explains in this interview how the empirical analysis of markets and the development of structural models have transformed our understanding of competition, regulation, and business behavior. Pakes details how his methods allow us to estimate demand, costs, and innovation in complex sectors, providing essential tools for evaluating public policies and the real impact of business decisions. His reflections highlight the importance of combining economic theory, data, and rigorous modeling to design more efficient and transparent markets and to understand how innovation drives industrial dynamics.

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Economics, Finance and Management category goes, in this tenth edition, to Timothy Bresnahan, Ariel Pakes and Robert Porter f

Having received the 10th Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Economics, Finance and Management, economist Ariel Pakes explains in this interview how the empirical analysis of markets and the development of structural models have transformed our understanding of competition, regulation, and business behavior. Pakes details how his methods allow us to estimate demand, costs, and innovation in complex sectors, providing essential tools for evaluating public policies and the real impact of business decisions. His reflections highlight the importance of combining economic theory, data, and rigorous modeling to design more efficient and transparent markets and to understand how innovation drives industrial dynamics.

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Economics, Finance and Management category goes, in this tenth edition, to Timothy Bresnahan, Ariel Pakes and Robert Porter for founding and shaping the field of empirical industrial organization, a branch of economics that has developed fundamental techniques to measure market power (understood as the ability of a firm to control prices in a given industry). “Motivated by important and policy-relevant questions in applied economics,” remarks the jury in its citation, “they developed methodologies that had a significant and long-lasting impact on subsequent work in industrial organization as well as other applied fields.”