Suzanne Scotchmer (January 23, 1950 – January 30, 2014) was an American professor of law, economics and public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and a noted author on many economic subjects. She earned her B.A. from University of Washington magna cum laude in 1970, her M.A. in statistics from UC Berkeley in 1979, and her PhD in economics from UC Berkeley in 1980.[1][2][3]
She was most renowned for her contributions on economic literature on subjects ranging from intellectual property and innovation to game theory. She was considered one of the leading and most prominent experts on patent law and incentives for R&D and game theory. Her pieces were cited several times on work in the subject. She served as a scholar in residence at the US appellate court and has been called to testify as an expert in patent matters.[1][2]
In 2017 The Econometric Society published a book recalling her life and work with a collection of 11 of her best-known papers.[4]
Death
Scotchmer died on January 30, 2014, one week after her 64th birthday, following a brief bout with intestinal cancer.[5][6]
Research
Picking Winners in Rounds of Elimination; 2012
Ideas and Innovations: Which Should Be Subsidized?; 2011
Verifiability and Group Formation in Markets; 2010
Risk Taking and Gender in Hierarchies; 2010
Cap-and-Trade, Emissions Taxes, and Innovation; 2010
Openness, Open Source, and the Veil of Ignorance; 2010
Scarcity of Ideas and R&D Options: Use it, Lose it or Bank it; 2009
Profit Neutrality in Licensing: The Boundary Between Antitrust Law and Patent Law; 2008
Digital Rights Management and the Pricing of Digital Products; 2006
Still Looking for Lost Profits: The Case of Horizontal Competition; 2006
Open Source Software: The New Intellectual Property Paradigm; 2006