Joe Podwol focuses on antitrust litigation and merger investigations. Dr. Podwol led support for the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) expert in its successful challenge of the IQVIA/Propel Media merger and provided support to the Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) expert in its successful challenge of the JetBlue/Spirit merger. He worked on the $8 billion Six Flags/Cedar Fair merger, assisting with analyses of the merger’s competitive implications and with the second request. In addition, he supported merging parties in the oil and gas industry with a second request in a merger successfully closed.
Prior to joining Cornerstone Research, Dr. Podwol served for a decade as an economist at the Antitrust Division of the DOJ. In that role, he applied rigorous theoretical and empirical tools to analyze competition and enforcement issues in the airline, dairy, healthcare, pay television, and steel manufacturing industries, among others. He worked on various high-profile matters at the DOJ, including the American Airlines/JetBlue Northeast Alliance, CVS/Aetna, and DFA/Dean.
Dr. Podwol’s research has appeared in the Journal of Industrial Organization and the European Economic Review, as well as the Antitrust Division’s Discussion Paper Series. From 2017 to 2022, he served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, where he taught a postgraduate course in applied game theory. At Harvard Law School, he was a Victor Kramer Fellow, researching topics at the intersection of industrial organization and antitrust law.
Trends in Merger Investigations and Enforcement at the U.S. Antitrust Agencies: FY 2005–FY 2023
United States of America et al. v. JetBlue Airways Corporation and Spirit Airlines Inc.
Cornerstone Research Named Among 2024 Outstanding Global Economic Consultancies
Cornerstone Research Staff and Affiliated Experts Submit Comments on the Joint FTC-DOJ Draft Merger Guidelines