Thomas Hazlett

Thomas W. Hazlett is the Hugh H. Macaulay Endowed Professor of Economics in the John E. Walker Department of Economics at Clemson University where he also directs the Information Economy Project.

Hazlett's essays have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Economist, The New Republic, The Weekly Standard, and Time. He was a New Technology Policy Forum columnist for the Financial Times, 2002–11, and wrote the "Selected Skirmishes" column for Reason magazine (1989–2000). He is a founding partner of the consulting firm, Arlington Economics, with economists David Porter and Vernon L. Smith. He serves as a Director of the Telecommunications Research Policy Conference, and is a member of the editorial boards of INFO, Telecommunications Policy, and the Supreme Court Economic Review. Hazlett is the author of several books, most recently releasing The Political Spectrum: The Tumultuous Liberation of Wireless Technology, from Herbert Hoover to the Smartphone in May 2017. A Wall Street Journal review called the ideas presented in the book "reason for cautious optimism about our wireless future."

Education and career

Hazlett earned a Ph.D. in economics from UCLA in 1984 and taught economics at the University of California at Davis and the Wharton School. In 1991–92, he served as Chief Economist of the Federal Communications Commission. He was a Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute 1998–2001 and a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute 2001–2005. From 2005 to 2013, Hazlett was Professor of Law and Economics at George Mason University.