Rate My Professor Vladimir Smirnov

Vladimir Smirnov is Professor of Industrial Organization in the School of Economics at the University of Sydney, where he has served since February 2003. He obtained his PhD in Economics from the Australian National University in October 2002, with a dissertation titled Essays on Corporate Finance and Investment, supervised by Professors Rohan Pitchford, Steve Dowrick, and Simon Grant. His earlier qualifications include a Master of Economics from the New Economic School, Moscow (1996-1998), and a Master of Science in Applied Mathematics and Information Technology from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (1991-1997). Before joining the University of Sydney, Smirnov worked at the Economic Expert Group in Moscow (January-July 1998), Access Economics (July-October 2002), and the Australian National University (October-December 2002).

Smirnov's research focuses on industrial organization, game theory, applied theory, organizational economics, behavioral economics, and AI. He has an extensive publication record in prestigious economics journals, frequently collaborating with Andrew Wait. Key publications include Hold-up and Sequential Specific Investments (The RAND Journal of Economics, 2004); Timing of Investments, Hold-up and Total Welfare (International Journal of Industrial Organization, 2004); Preemption with a Second-Mover Advantage (Games and Economic Behavior, 2021); Collusion with intertemporal price dispersion (The RAND Journal of Economics, 2020, with Nicolas de Roos); Sunk costs, entry and clustering (Economic Theory, 2024, with Alexander Matros and Andrew Wait); Optimal Skill Diversity in Teams (Economic Theory, 2025, with Miaomiao Dong et al.); and the forthcoming You, Me, or We? Co-Productive Principal-Agent Dynamics (Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, with Guillaume Roels, Ilia Tsetlin, and Andrew Wait). His work explores market entry dynamics, collusion, incentives, team production, and organizational change, contributing to advancements in economic theory. At the University of Sydney, Smirnov has taught courses including first-year microeconomics, industrial organization, game theory, and contract theory from 2003 to 2025.