Indiana University’s David Waterman will be the FCC’s chief economist come January.
Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler announced the appointment today, citing Waterman’s “understanding of the communications industries, and of the relationship of market structures to public policy.”
Waterman’s presence will help our effort to “beef up the role of economics in FCC decision-making,” says Wheeler.
The professor emeritus in the Department of Telecommunications, The Media School, expects to focus on media-related issues while at the agency, given his research on vertical integration and other aspects of market structure in multichannel television, and on the economics of programming, copyright and Internet video distribution.
Prior to joining Indiana University, Waterman was on the faculty of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California.
