It is now possible to acquire real time information on economic variables using various commercial sources. Hal Varian will illustrate how one can use Google Trends data to measure the state of the economy in various sectors, and discuss some of the implications for research and policy with Michael Chui of the McKinsey Global Institute.
Hal Varian is the Chief Economist at Google, where he has been involved in auction design, econometric analysis, finance, corporate strategy, and public policy. He is also a UC Berkeley professor emeritus in business, economics, and information management. Varian was the founding dean of the UC Berkeley School of Information (then known as the School of Information Management & Systems).
A world-renowned economist, Varian has published numerous papers in economic theory, industrial organization, financial economics, econometrics, and information economics. He is the author of two major economics textbooks and the co-author of a bestselling book on business strategy, Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy. Varian also wrote a monthly column for the New York Times from 2000 to 2007.
Michael Chui is a senior fellow of the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), where he leads research on the impact of information technologies on business, the economy, and society. Chui has led McKinsey research in such areas as long-term technology-enabled business trends, Web 2.0 and collaboration technologies, emerging markets innovators, and data-driven management. His research has been cited globally in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Fast Company, Forbes, The Times of London, and Les Échos.
As a McKinsey consultant, Chui served clients in the high-tech, media, and telecom industries on strategy, innovation and product development, IT, sales and marketing, M&A, and organization.