Kenneth G. Elzinga is the Robert C. Taylor Professor of Economics at the University of Virginia. He was the first recipient of the Cavaliers’ Distinguished Teaching Professorship at the University, a recipient of the Alumni Association’s Distinguished Professor Award, the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Outstanding Faculty Award, as well as awards in education from the Kenan and Templeton foundations. In 1992, he was given the Thomas Jefferson Award, the highest honor the University of Virginia accords its faculty.
Each fall, Mr. Elzinga’s introductory economics course attracts over one thousand students and is the largest class offered at the University of Virginia. His Antitrust Policy seminar, which is taught using the Socratic method, often has a waiting list of two years.
Mr. Elzinga’s major research interest is antitrust economics, especially pricing strategy and market definition. He has testified in several precedent-setting antitrust cases, and was the economic expert for the prevailing parties in three Supreme Court cases: Matsushita, Brooke Group, and Leegin.
The author of more than one hundred academic publications, he also is known for four mystery novels (under the pen name Marshall Jevons) where the protagonist employs economic analysis to solve the crime.
The latest is The Mystery of the Invisible Hand. The novels have been used in classrooms across the country to illustrate introductory economic principles, and have been translated into seven languages. A former Fellow in Law and Economics at the University of Chicago and a Thomas Jefferson Visiting Scholar at Cambridge University, Mr. Elzinga also is a past president of the Southern Economic Association and served as a judge for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award.
Mr. Elzinga has a B.A. and honorary doctorate from Kalamazoo College, a Ph.D. from Michigan State University, an honorary doctorate from Gordon College, and is an Honorary Faculty member of Dongbei University. He has been a member of the faculty at the University of Virginia since 1967.
IN THE MEDIA
VIRGINIA Magazine, Spring 2016
UVA Today, March 2016
The Secret Life of Ken Elzinga
VIRGINIA Magazine, Summer 2014