Aviv Nevo

Aviv Nevo served as Director of the Bureau of Economics at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from January 2023 to December 2024. Professor Nevo also formerly served as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Economic Analysis (Chief Economist) at the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ). While he was at the FTC, Professor Nevo was deeply involved in the development, release, and early application of the 2023 Merger Guidelines.

In each antitrust agency position, Professor Nevo led large teams of Ph.D. economists, financial analysts, statistical analysts, and data scientists, who investigated and, when needed, helped to litigate mergers, alleged anticompetitive conduct, and consumer protection matters.

Professor Nevo has extensive testifying experience. He has been retained as an expert by the DOJ, the FTC, and private firms in numerous cases related to antitrust merger review, conduct investigations of dominant firms, antitrust, and other litigation matters.

He testified as the U.S. government’s economic expert in the proposed $37 billion merger between health insurers Aetna and Humana in 2016, in the proposed $400 million acquisition of Drew Marine Group by Wilhelmsen Maritime Services in 2018, and in the proposed $360 million acquisition of Farelogix by Sabre Corporation.

Professor Nevo has analyzed competitive effects for merging parties in numerous other matters, including Cigna/Express Scripts, Walt Disney/21st Century Fox, Big Tex Trailers/American Trailer Works, and Commercial Metals Company/Gerdau S.A.

In FTC. v. Qualcomm, Professor Nevo testified on behalf of Qualcomm, addressing FTC allegations of anticompetitive business practices. Global Competition Review recognized this case as its 2021 Behavioural Matter of the Year – Americas. Counsel for Qualcomm also retained Professor Nevo for the cases Apple v. Qualcomm and Qualcomm v. Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC). For the latter case, Professor Nevo testified before the Seoul High Court in May 2019.

Professor Nevo’s academic work lies at the intersection of industrial organization, marketing, and econometrics. He is a pioneer in using data to analyze consumer preferences and decision making. He has published extensively on methods that can be used to assess market power and mergers, particularly in the context of differentiated products. His research includes studies of consumer packaged goods, retailing, real estate brokerages, healthcare, and telecommunications.

At the University of Pennsylvania, Professor Nevo is a Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor with appointments in the department of economics and the Wharton School’s Business Economics and Policy and Marketing Departments. He also directs the Wharton Competition and Policy Initiative. Professor Nevo previously served as a coeditor of Econometrica, a coeditor of the RAND Journal of Economics, and editor of the Journal of Industrial Economics. He is a fellow of the Econometric Society and a research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Global Competition Review named Professor Nevo in its inaugural list of the world’s most important antitrust academics. Lexology Index (formerly Who’s Who Legal) has recognized him multiple times as a leading competition economist and a Thought Leader in the competition field. In 2019 and 2017, the American Antitrust Institute honored Professor Nevo for Outstanding Antitrust Litigation Achievement in Economics.

Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, Professor Nevo taught at the University of California, Berkeley; Northwestern University; and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.