Mary Sullivan

Mary Sullivan headshot

Mary Sullivan

Visiting Scholar


School: Columbian College of Arts and Sciences

Department: Regulatory Studies Center

Visiting Scholar

Prior to joining the GW Regulatory Studies Center, Mary Sullivan was an economist at the Federal Trade Commission. Previously, she was as an economist and Assistant Chief of the Competition Policy Section at the Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division. In academia, she was on the faculties of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and the George Washington School of Business.

Her research focuses on regulation, antitrust, and the economics of brand names and trademarks. While at the Federal Trade Commission, she wrote Economic Analysis of Hotel Resort Fees, which examines how poorly-disclosed fees affect consumers’ ability to search. In addition, she has published several articles in regulation and antitrust, including “The Effect of the Big Eight Accounting Firm Mergers on the Market for Audit Services” and “Slotting Allowances and the Market for New Products” in the Journal of Law and Economics; “The Role of Antitrust in Marketing” in the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing; and “Economics at the FTC: Drug and PBM Mergers and Drip Pricing” (coauthored) in the Review of Industrial Organization. Her research on measuring brand equity and customer satisfaction are widely cited in the academic literature.

Ms. Sullivan holds a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago and an A.B. in economics from Duke University.

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The FTC’s Forthcoming Junk Fee Rule Could Be a Candidate for the Congressional Review Act

To be successful, the rule should focus on harmful fees used in short-term lodging and live-event ticketing