Professor Robin Mason

Professor Robin Mason joined the University of Exeter Business School as Professor of Economics in 2009, having previously been the Eric Roll Professor of Economics and Head of Economics at the University of Southampton. He gained his PhD from the University of Cambridge. He is a fellow of the CEPR and a Reporting Panel Member and a Specialist Member on the Communications Act Panel of the Competition Commission.

His research interests are in the broad area of game theory. This provides a formal framework for thinking about strategy and security issues. Practically, this is useful for analysing and gaining insight into:

(i) how arms races can be de-escalated;
(ii) how nations behaved during the cold war (why did the Cuban missile crisis go as far as it did, but no further?);
(iii) how security forces and terrorists interact over time: why is security tightened immediately after a terrorist attack?

His academic research concentrates on how firms respond strategically to uncertainty; and, more broadly, the incentives faced by economic agents in situations when they have imperfect information about their environment. While his research is theoretical in nature, it is motivated by the applied problems that he encounters while advising regulators and companies. In particular, much of his work is based on situations he has encountered when thinking about the communications and media industries.

He has acted as advisor to a number of regulators, in both the UK and internationally, to the Prime Minister of Mauritius on competition policy, and a number of private-sector companies.