Alexander MacKay is the James H. and Elizabeth W. Wright Jefferson Scholars Foundation Distinguished Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Virginia. His research addresses how equilibrium prices and markups are influenced by algorithms, long-term contracts, and vertical restraints. He also studies dynamic consumer behavior and its impacts in various contexts, including mergers, the adoption of new technologies, and longer-run sectoral shifts.
Mr. MacKay's research considers the broader implications for firms and antitrust authorities and has been cited by The New York Times, the Financial Times, TIME Magazine, National Public Radio, and the Economic Report of the President.
Mr. MacKay received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in economics from the University of Virginia. Following his Ph.D., he was a postdoctoral fellow for one year at Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School. Mr. MacKay joined UVA from the faculty of Harvard Business School, where he was an Associate Professor of Business Administration.
Links
Research Interests
- Industrial Organization
- Antitrust and Competition Policy
- Applied Econometrics
- Microeconomics
Current Research
Markups and Cost Pass-through Along the Supply Chain
(with S. Alvarez, A. Cavallo, and P. Mengano)
Algorithmic Coercion with Faster Pricing
(with Z. Brown)
Dynamic Pricing, Intertemporal Spillovers, and Efficiency
(with D. Svartbäck and A. G. Ekholm)
What Drives Variation in Investor Portfolios? Estimating the Roles of Beliefs and Risk Preferences
(with M. Egan and H. Yang)
Revision requested, Review of Financial Studies
[NBER Working Paper 29604]
Consumer Inertia and Market Power
(with M. Remer)
Revision requested, RAND Journal of Economics
Do Markets Reduce Prices? Evidence from the U.S. Electricity Sector
(with I. Mercadal)
Selected Publications
Rising Markups and the Role of Consumer Preferences
(with H. Döpper, N. H. Miller, and J. Stiebale)
Accepted, Journal of Political Economy
Estimating Models of Supply and Demand: Instruments and Covariance Restrictions
(with N. H. Miller)
Forthcoming, American Economic Journal: Microeconomics
Competition in Pricing Algorithms
(with Z. Y. Brown)
American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 2023
Recovering Investor Expectations from Demand for Index Funds
(with M. Egan and H. Yang)
Review of Economic Studies, 2022.
Contract Duration and the Costs of Market Transactions
American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 2022.
The Long-Run Dynamics of Electricity Demand: Evidence from Municipal Aggregation
(with T. Deryugina and J. Reif)
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2020