Professor Paul Klemperer FBA

Summary

Paul Klemperer is Edgeworth Professor of Economics at Oxford University. He co-invented the now widely-used concept of "strategic complements"; his contributions to industrial economics include developing the theory of consumer switching costs and the "supply function" analysis of energy markets; and he has showed how to apply intuitions and techniques from auction theory in a range of other economic contexts, from finance to political economy. He has also invented new auction designs; the "Product-Mix Auction" he developed during the financial crisis is now regularly used by the Bank of England -- former-Governor, Mervyn King, described it as "a marvellous application of theoretical economics to a practical problem of vital importance". He has advised numerous governments, including devising (with Binmore) the UK government's "3G" mobile-phone license auction that raised £22.5 billion, and assisting the US Treasury in the financial crisis. He is a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the Econometric Society, a Fellow of the European Economic Association, and a Foreign Honorary Member of the Argentinian Economic Association.