US: FTC names new Economic Bureau Chief

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chair Joseph Simons has tapped University of Maryland economics professor Andrew Sweeting to succeed Bruce H. Kobayashi as director of the FTC’s Bureau of Economics starting in January.

Michael Vita, deputy director of the Bureau is stepping in as acting director in the interim. The FTC Bureau of Economics Director Bruce H. Kobayashi is departing the agency to return to George Mason University.

“Bruce has been a valuable part of the FTC team, bringing rigorous economic reasoning and advice to consumer protection and competition matters that come before the Commission,” Chairman Simons said. “I want to thank Bruce for his hard work and dedicated service to the FTC and American consumers.”

The Bureau advises the commissioners and staff on economic policy and oversees economic analysis. Kobayashi has been with the FTC since 2018.

Sweeting has been with the university since 2013 researching, among other things, the effects of mergers on price and variety of products and the consumer benefits of targeted advertising, a big issue before the Commission with the spotlight on the competitive impact of dominant edge providers and their use of data for targeted ads.

Full Content: FTC

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