Matthew Backus

· Associate Professor

University of California, Berkeley · Economic Analysis & Policy

Active 2001–2026

h-index14

Citations957

Papers5313 last 5y

Funding—

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About

Matthew Backus is an associate professor in the Economic Analysis and Policy Group at Berkeley Haas. His focus is on industrial organization, a field of economics that studies market power in its myriad forms. His research has touched on auctions, bargaining, cartels, communication, and productivity. A recurrent theme in his work is the development of tools that allow us to empirically distinguish between theoretical models of behavior. Backus joined Berkeley from Columbia University, where he was an associate professor in the economics division of Columbia Business School. He is a faculty research fellow of the National Bureau of Economic Research and a research affiliate of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Michigan.

Research topics

Computer Science
Economics
Finance
Business
Microeconomics
Financial economics
Accounting
Mathematics
Monetary economics
Market economy

Selected publications

Communication and Bargaining Breakdown: An Empirical Analysis
National Bureau of Economic Research · 2020-10-01 · 10 citations
reportOpen access1st authorCorresponding
Bargaining breakdown-whether as delay, conflict, or missing trade-plagues bargaining in environments with incomplete information. Can a bargaining environment that facilitates or restricts communication alleviate these costs? We exploit a unique opportunity to study this question using real market transactions: eBay Germany's Best Offer platform. On May 23, 2016, the platform introduced unstructured communication allowing buyers and sellers on the desktop version of the site, but not the mobile…
Publisher DOI
Dynamic Demand Estimation in Auction Markets
The Review of Economic Studies · 2024-03-27 · 5 citations
article1st authorCorresponding
Abstract We study demand estimation in a large auction market. In our model, a dynamically evolving population of buyers with unit demand and heterogeneous and privately known preferences for a finite set of differentiated products compete in a sequence of auctions that occur in discrete time. We define an empirically tractable equilibrium concept in which bidders behave as though they are competing with the stationary distribution of opposing bids, characterize bidding strategies, and prove exi…
Publisher DOI
Communication, Learning, and Bargaining Breakdown: An Empirical Analysis
Management Science · 2025-08-18 · 2 citations
article1st authorCorresponding
Bargaining breakdown is common in bargaining in environments with incomplete information. We study whether, in these environments, permitting communication impacts bargaining outcomes. On May 23, 2016, eBay Germany’s Best Offer platform introduced unstructured communication allowing desktop users, but not mobile users, to accompany offers with a message. Using this natural experiment, our difference-in-differences approach documents a 14% decrease in the rate of breakdown among compliers. Though…
Publisher DOI
Thinking and Confidence (TAO)
OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) · 2026-02-17
other
Publisher
Real and Assumed Information
AEA Papers and Proceedings · 2025-05-01
articleOpen access
We consider a simplified version of the model in Augenblick et. al (2025), in which people use models to translate data into beliefs and predictions. We posit that they make correct inferences given a model but not unconditionally, forgetting model uncertainty, and demonstrate two implications: first, that new information can decrease confidence rather than increase it, if it prompts reconsideration of assumed models; second, that people with models may misunderstand what kind of information is…
Publisher OA PDF DOI

Frequent coauthors

Steven Tadelis
University of California, Berkeley
105 shared
Thomas Blake
Amazon (United States)
48 shared
Dimitriy V. Masterov
30 shared
Tom Blake
eBay (United States)
28 shared
Brad Larsen
Stanford University
26 shared
Michael Sinkinson
Yale University
20 shared
Christopher T. Conlon
New York University
20 shared
Gregory Lewis
University of Ontario Institute of Technology
20 shared

Education

Ph.D.
UC Berkeley

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