Dr. Vivek Ghosal joined Rensselaer in August 2016 as the Head of the Department of Economics, and the Virginia and Lloyd W. Rittenhouse Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences. Since then, he has managed a significant expansion of the department’s programs and launched a new interdisciplinary program, a B.S. in Biotechnology and Health Economics, which started admitting students in fall 2021. In addition, he has managed the development of the Ph.D. in Economics and Applied Policy, planned to start in fall 2024. 

Before joining Rensselaer, Dr. Ghosal was a faculty member at the Georgia Institute of Technology from 2001-2016. At Georgia Tech, he was the Richard and Mary Inman Research Professor, and director of the M.S. and Ph.D. programs in economics. Prior to Georgia Tech, he was a senior economist at the Economic Analysis Group of the Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice (1998-2001). In this position, he worked on antitrust cases related to mergers and acquisitions, and horizontal and vertical market power. Dr. Ghosal’s international appointments have included visiting professor positions at the European Business School in Germany (2008-2018) and at the Korea Development Institute for Public Policy and Management in South Korea (2010-2016). He has provided executive education lectures and workshops to international public policy professionals in Taipei, Lima, New Delhi, and Tokyo. He has taught summer graduate school workshops at the University of Amsterdam, Ludwig Maximilians University (Munich), and Central European University (Budapest).

Dr. Ghosal’s current research and policy interests include: biopharmaceuticals markets focusing on innovation, pricing, and FDA regulations; and antitrust laws, enforcement, and regulations. His research papers have been published in peer-reviewed journals in economics, management, and law and economics. He is currently the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, and is a member of the editorial boards of several other international journals.