Frank Wolak

Frank Wolak portrait 2024

Frank Wolak, MS, PhD

  • Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
  • Holbrook Working Professor of Commodity Price Studies in Economics
  • Senior Fellow, by courtesy, at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research
  • Director of the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development

Stanford University 
Economics Department 
579 Jane Stanford Way Stanford, CA 94305-6072 

Website: https://fawolak.org/

(650) 724-1712 (voice)
(650) 724-1717 (fax)

Biography

Frank A. Wolak is a Professor in the Department of Economics at Stanford University. His fields of specialization are Industrial Organization and Econometric Theory. His recent work studies methods for introducing competition into infrastructure industries -- telecommunications, electricity, water delivery and postal delivery services -- and on assessing the impacts of these competition policies on consumer and producer welfare. He is the Chairman of the Market Surveillance Committee of the California Independent System Operator for electricity supply industry in California. He is a visiting scholar at University of California Energy Institute and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).

Professor Wolak received his Ph.D. and M.S. from Harvard University and his B.A. from Rice University.

publications

Journal Articles
June 2020

Learning about Electricity Market Performance with a Large Share of Renewables from the COVID-19 Lock-Down

Author(s)
Learning about Electricity Market Performance with a Large Share of Renewables from the COVID-19 Lock-Down
Journal Articles
April 2020

Measuring the Ability to Exercise Unilateral Market Power in Locational-Pricing Markets: An Application to the Italian Electricity Market

Author(s)
Measuring the Ability to Exercise Unilateral Market Power in Locational-Pricing Markets: An Application to the Italian Electricity Market
Journal Articles
April 2020

Market Performance Assessment in Locational Markets with Non-Convexities

Author(s)
Market Performance Assessment in Locational Markets with Non-Convexities

In The News

CPUC meeting
News

PESD/CPUC Impact Lab tackles resource adequacy in a high-renewables California

PESD/CPUC Impact Lab tackles resource adequacy in a high-renewables California
Screen shot of MIT CEEPR's Nov 19, 2020 Fall 2020 Webinar Series discussion on grid reliability in a carbon-constrained world
News

Wolak addresses grid reliability in a carbon-constrained world

Wolak addresses grid reliability in a carbon-constrained world
solar station
News

Wolak: Solving California’s Power Crisis

Wolak: Solving California’s Power Crisis