Eric Brousseau

Eric Brousseau is Professor of Economics and Management at the University Paris-Dauphine; a founding member of PSL Research University.  He is a member of Dauphine Research in Management (DRM), a Joint Research Center between Dauphine and the CNRS. He is the Scientific Director of the Chair “Governance and Regulation” and of the “Club des Régulateurs” chairgovreg.fondation-dauphine.fr. He is also involved with the European University Institute in Florence.

His research focuses on economic governance and market regulation. He is interested in how the strategies of actors influence the organization and evolution of institutions shaping economic activities; hence detailed researches on how regulatory frameworks emerge, evolve and perform in various contemporary or historical, national or transnational contexts; as well as on the interactions between self- and public regulations. He has published nearly a hundred scientific papers and has edited about fifteen books and symposia. He has been involved in researches funded by the French Government, the European Commission, the US National Science Foundation, the UN, and the OECD.

He is the founder and the director of the Institutional & Organizational Economics Academy (IOEA; ex-ESNIE), and is a Past-President of the Society for Institutional & Organizational Economics (SIOE; ex-ISNIE). He is also an honorary member of the Institut Universitaire de France.
He is the current director of the Dauphine Doctoral School. He is the founder of the Executive Master “Concurrence et Régulation” and one of the creators of Master Program “Network Industries and Digital Economy” (IREN); jointly operated between Dauphine, Polytechnique, Supelec TélécomParisTech and the University Paris-Sud. He is also the director of the Master Program “Telecom and Media Management” (226).

Research

Eric Brousseau’s research has mainly been directed towards the analysis of the institutions and governance mechanisms framing the organization and performance of markets. He is interested in how the strategies of different stakeholders, among which economic actors, companies and entrepreneurs, influence the dynamic of industries and markets. This is both to understand the non-market strategies of businesses as they engage in the structuring of institutional frameworks — self- and public regulations, legal frameworks, mechanisms of transnational governance, etc. —, and the way they articulate with the political and legal dynamics in institutional evolutions. His work has been developing around three main themes :

The institutional organization of markets:
Markets are sophisticated social technologies resulting from processes of emergence and evolution that are difficult to control. Clashes among conflicting interests seeking to establish situations of domination or means of protection against risks, combined with competition driven efforts of rationalization and innovation result, into very imperfect institutional architectures, often unstable, yet difficult to reform. Focussing on the interplay between the economic, political, and legal drivers of evolutions renews the analysis of economic governance by analyzing the details of how market institutions are built and work in practice; hence extensive work on the regulation and the organization of markets in various national or transnational, historical or contemporary contexts, with a focus on networks based and digital industries, creative activities and innovation, as well as market for technologies. The way value is created through alternative business models and their sustainability is also explored by combining economics of innovation, economics of information and industrial organization.

Institutional dynamics:
Understanding the institutional framework of markets leads to the adoption of a broader perspective aimed at analyzing the interactions between economic, political, and civic actors. I have been studying the strategic interactions between stakeholders in the construction and evolution of formal and informal, public and private institutional frameworks, as well as the competition among alternative institutional solutions. This line of research focuses on the co-development of legal systems establishing rights, with state apparatus providing public goods, linking them with the development or impediment of exchange and competition. It also focuses on competition and complementarities among alternative modes of governance. This has been leading to explore the development and evolution of state machineries, and the articulation between modes and levels of political and economic governance.

Global governance:
The current international economic (and civic) space is characterized by the development of specific governance mechanisms, which emerge in the absence of a central government, and question the existing nation-states, not to mention their decisive impact for global business strategies. I am interested in the emergence and properties of these mechanisms, particularly in the case of the digital and information society, and of the environment.

Collective and Management Responsibilities

Research Teams and Consortia:
In the fall of 2014, Eric Brousseau is launching a multidisciplinary program entitled “Governance and Regulation” aimed at studying the economic, political and legal dynamics that shape the institutional environment of markets and industries. The goal is to contribute to a better  design and management of regulation authorities and policies. The program gathers a group of researchers in economics, management, law, sociology, political-economy. They will cooperate with specialized consulting firms, public agencies and regulated firms in the Chaire “Gouvernance et Régulation” and in the “Club des Régulateurs”.
Since June 2014, Eric Brousseau has been the director of the Dauphine Doctoral School, which hosts 470 PhD Students in Computer Sciences Economics, Management, Mathematic, and Social Sciences.
From 2005 to 2011, Eric Brousseau was the head of a joint research center operated by the CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research) and the University of Paris-Ouest : EconomiX. The team combines theoretical and applied research in various fields of economics. With more than 220 members, among whom 90 faculties, it is one of the major research unit in economics in France. As a result of the reforms implemented over the period, the center got the highest grade in its assessment by the French rating agency for research (AERES) in 2013.
Eric Brousseau also chaired the CNRS's Research Consortium "Information and Communication Technologies and the Society" (GDR TICS) from 2002 to 2009.

International Networks:
Eric Brousseau has been deeply involved in the management of several scientific networks.

• He is the founder and the director of the l'European School on New Institutional Economics (ESNIE), a network organizing on a regular basis training sessions and scientific workshops aimed at strengthening research and stimulating cooperation in institutional and organizational economics, especially in Europe. More than 900 researchers from more than 60 different nationalities have been involved in ESNIE's activities over the years, giving birth to an active scientific network.
• Eric Brousseau is a past-president of the International Society for New Institutional Economics (ISNIE); a society funded by the Nobel laureates Ronald Coase and Douglass North to encourage rigorous theoretical and empirical investigation of the institutions of social, political and commercial life using approaches drawn from economics, organization theory, law, political science, and other social sciences. He was the secretary of the society from 2007 to 2011, and Vice-President then President from 2011 to 2014.
• Eric Brousseau also played a strong role in the building and coordination of major EU funded projects, in particular the Integrated Project Ref-Gov (6th FP) in which was in charge of the program on the governance of markets and involved in the research on global public goods. He was also a member of the executive committee of the Network of Excellence DIME (2005-2011)

Academic Programs:
Eric Brousseau is the director of two master programs

• The master IREN Network Industries and Digital Economy is an international graduate program of excellence. Its aim is to train students to allow them to master the principles driving network industries and the digital economy. It targets careers either in the academia or in companies, governments, consumer based organizations, or institutions of regulation. It is an educational partnership jointly operated by two Universities of the Region Ile-de-France (Paris-Dauphine and Paris-Sud,) and three Grandes Ecoles (Ecole Polytechnique, Supélec, Télécom ParisTech).
•  The Master Program “Telecom and Media Management” (“226”) has been training for more than thirty years executives for the French telecommunications, communication industry and medias.

When he was professor in Paris-Ouest, Eric Brousseau launched a Master program in Law and Economics; is a joint program between the department of Economics and the Law School at the University of Paris-Ouest. Created in 2006, it was the first program in France in the field. It trains students in the economics and law of regulation and antitrust; and more generally in law and economics.