Internet & E-commerce
Provide expert analysis on the role of e-commerce and Internet marketing on businesses and organizations.
Economist, Marketing Expert
The economics and marketing of new technology.
Ward Hanson studies how innovation reshapes markets — from the commercialization of the Internet to the emerging private space economy.
About
Ward Hanson analyzes the economics and marketing of new technology. Other areas of interest include the role of competition, policy issues involving the evolving role of interactivity, and optimal product line pricing. As a pioneer in studying the commercialization and impact of the Internet, he has published research articles, a leading text, and created online courses on Internet marketing. He has served as an expert witness in areas of patent validity, e-commerce, Internet advertising, and industry analysis.
Dr. Hanson taught at Stanford from 1995-2023, first at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, then at the Department of Economics and the Public Policy program. Previous faculty positions include Purdue University and the University of Chicago. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University.
Areas of focus
My research and consulting currently focuses on:
Commercial Space
Investigate the economics and importance of the emerging private space industry.
Emerging Technologies
Analyze the development and diffusion of new technologies.
Current research
As part of his interest in innovation, Dr. Hanson is a regular contributor to and editorial board member of the journal New Space, which studies the emerging private space industry. He completed a grant from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, applying the lessons of the commercialization of the Internet to the ongoing reform of space regulations. Dr. Hanson contributed a chapter on LEO satellite constellations to the 2026 Oxford University Press The Oxford Handbook of the New Space Economy. He is also intrigued by parallels and differences between the adoption of artificial intelligence and the roll-out of Internet technologies.
Biography
Dr. Ward A. Hanson — the impact of high technology and innovation.
Dr. Ward A. Hanson studies the impact of high technology and innovation. Of special interest is the Internet, and he has pioneered courses, online materials, and textbooks on Internet marketing and e-commerce. He is also currently working on the economics of commercial space, especially large constellations of satellites for providing high-speed global Internet and potential LEO-based data centers.
Dr. Hanson was a Lecturer in Economics at Stanford University from 2004 to 2023. Among his previous courses are the Economics of the Internet, Antitrust Economics, Internet Marketing and E-commerce, Pricing, and Space Policy (in the Stanford Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics). From 2004–2016, he was the SIEPR Policy Forum Director and Fellow with the Center for Employment and Economic Growth (CEEG) at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR).
From 1995–2003, Dr. Hanson was a faculty member of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University and a core faculty member of the Center for Electronic Business and Commerce. He has taught, researched, and written on Internet marketing, innovation policy, new product competition, product bundling, technology marketing, and pricing.
His pioneering textbook, Principles of Internet Marketing, was translated into Chinese, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish. It grew out of the Internet Marketing course he first created in 1996 at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. A joint venture between Stanford and UNext adopted his book and course as the basis for an online suite of Internet Marketing classes. His second textbook, Internet Marketing and E-commerce, was co-authored with Kirthi Kalyanam.
Dr. Hanson has served as a consultant and expert witness on Internet marketing, marketing strategy, pricing, and competition. He has provided policy advice to various agencies of the U.S. government, and has served on a panel of Internet experts for the European Commission.
He has a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a Master's and Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University. Previous faculty positions include the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and the Krannert Graduate School of Management at Purdue University.
His curriculum vitae is available upon request.
