Valerie Suslow, PhD

Valerie Suslow is a Professor of Economics at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School.

Previously, Suslow was Vice Dean for Faculty & Research at the Carey School from 2015-2022 and Senior Advisor to the Dean from 2022-2023.  Currently, in addition to her Carey faculty role, she is serving as External Advisor to School of Education Faculty for Promotion and Tenure, supporting the School of Education tenure-track faculty by providing mentoring and advising, as they put a tenure and promotion structure in place.  Prior to joining Carey, she was at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, where she served as Senior Associate Dean for MBA Programs and was also Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy, and the Louis and Myrtle Moskowitz Research Professor of Business and Law.

Her research area is in the field of industrial organization, with a focus on the economics of explicit price fixing and cartel operations.  In particular, she examines the determinants of cartel stability, international cartel operations, and antitrust policy responses.  Her most recent work analyzes the extent to which vertical restraints can support anticompetitive behavior, especially horizontal collusion.

Suslow has authored numerous articles and book chapters and her research has been published in journals including the Journal of Law and Economics, Antitrust Law Journal, International Journal of Industrial Organization, and Journal of Economic Literature. Suslow is a senior editor of the Antitrust Law Journal.

Suslow earned her PhD in economics from Stanford University and her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley. Her awards include the Victor L. Bernard Faculty Award for Leadership in Teaching and the Andy Andrews Distinguished Service Award from the University of Michigan, and the John M. Olin National Fellowship from the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

Education

• Ph. D, Economics, Stanford University
• BA, Economics, University of California - Berkeley

Research

Selected publications

• “Strategic Use of Public Price Indexes as a Collusive Device” (with Margaret Levenstein), Competition Policy International, Antitrust Chronicle, July 2023: 3-9.
• “Swimming in Pools: Collusion in the Salmon Market” (with Danial Asmat, Margaret Levenstein, and Zhihan (Helen) Wang), The Antitrust Bulletin, Vol. 68, No. 1, 2023: 137-153.
• “How Do Cartels Use Vertical Restraints? Horizontal and Vertical Working in Tandem” (with Margaret Levenstein), Antitrust Law Journal, Vol. 81, No. 1, 2020: 15-40.
• “Preventing Cartel Recidivism” (with Margaret Levenstein and Catarina Marvão), Antitrust, Vol. 30, No. 3, 2016: 81-88.
• "Price Fixing Hits Home: An Empirical Study of U.S. Price-Fixing" (with Margaret Levenstein), Review of Industrial Organization, Vol. 48, No. 4, 2016: 361-379.
• “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do:  Determinants of Cartel Duration” (with Margaret Levenstein), Journal of Law and Economics, Vol. 54, No. 2, 2011:  455-492.
• “What Determines Cartel Success?” (with Margaret Levenstein), Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 44, No. 1, March 2006: 43-95.
• “Cartel Contract Duration: Empirical Evidence from Inter-war International Cartels” Industrial and Corporate Change, Vol. 14, No. 5, 2005: 705-744.
• “Contemporary International Cartels and Developing Countries: Economic Effects and Implications for Competition Policy” (with Margaret Levenstein), Antitrust Law Journal, Vol. 71, No. 3, 2004: 801-852.

Teaching

Current

• Innovation Field Project
• Economics for Decision Making

Honors and distinctions

• Leadership in Graduate Business Education Curricular Innovation Award, Graduate Business Curriculum Roundtable, October 2023
• Editor, The Case for Women-Case Writing Competition (Emerald Publishing, MBA Roundtable, Forté), 2021-2023
• Antitrust Law Journal:  Economics Vice Chair (July 2024 - present), Senior Editor (2002- 2024)
• Andy Andrews Distinguished Service Award, Ross School of Business, May 2016
• Jerry S. Cohen Memorial Fund Writing Award for Antitrust Scholarship, Best Vertical Restraints Article of 2014 for “How Do Cartels Use Vertical Restraints? Reflections on Bork’s The Antitrust Paradox” (Journal of Law & Economics, 2014)
• Victor L. Bernard Faculty Award for Leadership in Teaching, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, 2004