Luís Cabral was born in Lisbon, June 8, 1961. He works in the field of industrial organization, the study of the workings of markets, with a focus on competition between firms. Within this field he is interested, among other things, in issues of competition policy (e.g., merger policy).

Currently he is a professor of Economics and Management, a research professor and a department chair at the Department of Economics of New York University's Leonard Stern School of Business. During the next academic year  (2006-2007), he will be a visiting professor of Economics at the Department of Economics in the Yale University.

Luís Cabral is also a research fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, has done consulting for various multinational firms and government organizations and from 1999 to 2003 he has also served as general editor of the Journal of Industrial Economics.

All of his degrees have been in economics.  He received his B.A. (Licenciatura) from Universidade Católica Portuguesa in 1983; a Masters from Universidade Nova de Lisboa, in 1985; and a Ph.D. from Stanford University, in 1989.

His fascination for the U.S. dates back to when his eldest sister Rita spent a year there as a visiting student in 1969. In the early 1980s, when he decided to pursue an academic career in economics, various people -- most notably Diogo Lucena and António Borges -- suggested him study in the U.S. and he needed little convincing.

While at Stanford University he was financially supported by Universidade Nova de Lisboa, the Fulbright Commission, and Stanford University itself.

He has written more than 30 articles in international peer reviewed economics journals, some single authored, some jointly authored. “In economics, no distinction is normally made in jointly authored papers, names are simply listed in alphabetical order, which is not so bad for someone called Cabral”, says Luís Cabral

He has also written a textbook, "Introduction to Industrial Organization," published in 2000 by MIT Press and translated into half a dozen languages.

When he finished his doctoral degree at Stanford, he returned to Portugal as per his commitment with Universidade Nova de Lisboa (and the Fulbright Commission).  He remained there until 1996 (with a sabbatical semester in between, spent at Stanford and Boston universities).  In 1996, he accepted the position of associate professor at the London Business School, and he was promoted to full professor in 1998. 

Luís Cabral says that while he enjoyed living and working in London, he decided that the U.S. was a better place where to develop his professional career. In 1999, he moved to Berkeley, where he taught for a year.  In 2000, he was offered the position of professor of Economics at New York University (Leonard Stern School of Business), and he has been there since, which makes that “the longest stretch in the same place since a long time ago”, says Luís Cabral.

Presently he is applying to two NSF lines of research.  He has received NSF research support before and he has also received support from the portuguese JNICT.  All of these projects are either solo authored or have one co-author, which is something that frequently happens in economics.

Since he finished his doctoral degree in 1989, he has always had one or two doctoral students under his supervision.  Currently, he is working with two students at NYU and a third one has just graduated.

Luís Cabral would like his research in the workings of firms and markets to help make the world a better place, one step at a time.  He believes that well organized markets can be a tremendous factor for economic development, and thinks that competition policy plays an important role in achieving that goal.

As with most academics, scholarly work is the primary source of visibility, says Luis Cabral. But in his case, he thinks that because he has written a relatively popular textbook that may also have helped to get him known amongst the scientific community.  Although, in economics (as in many other fields), it's not enough to publish, presentations are also essential and he regularly gives research seminars at many research universities in the U.S. and around the world.

He has received a variety of invitations to work in Portugal, at several levels: government, academic and industry. Most of these offered very good terms, but were not compatible with continuing a full-time career as an academic in the U.S., which is still his professional priority.

An exception is the offer for a position as chief economic consultant of the Portuguese Competition Authority (Autoridade da Concorrência), which he has accepted because it is compatible with his position at NYU

Other than economics, his interests include painting and music. His artwork has been exhibited on both sides of the Atlantic, and painting seems to be something that runs in his family since his grandfather and his great-grandfather were both renowned painters. He also plays the saxophone and has performed with the NYU Stern Faculty All Stars and other equally reputed bands, and due to his interest for the rock band “Genesis”, Luís Cabral has also developed a law, called “The Cabral Law of Exponential Decay”, that states the following “The value of a Genesis recording is inversely related to the time distance with respect to the 1971-1974”, and it’s quite accurate having only one exception.

AWARDS

He received the first Young Economist Prize awarded by the European Association for Research in Industrial Economics in 1989. 

He has also been invited as keynote speaker to a variety of international conferences.

lcabral at stern.nyu.edu