He received a Ph.D. in Operations and Information Management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, in 2000, and a Diploma in Computer Science and Business Administration at the Technical University in Darmstadt in 1994. Prior to USC, he worked as an Assistant Professor at GSIA, Carnegie Mellon University. He has published several articles on the economics of information technology, and has completed theoretical and empirical studies on the economics of privacy - focusing on topics such as spam, the economic impact of direct marketing, and users’ revealed preferences between privacy and alternative benefits (such as personalization or monetary rewards).