Paul Joskow has been on the MIT faculty since 1972 and served as Head of the MIT Department of Economics from 1994 to 1998. He is engaged in teaching and research in the areas of industrial organization, energy and environmental economics, competition policy, and government regulation of industry. Joskow has published six books and more than 120 articles and papers in these areas.

Joskow is a Director of National Grid PLC, a Director of TransCanada Corporation, and a Trustee of the Putnam Mutual Funds. He previously served as a Director of New England Electric System, State Farm Indemnity Company, and the Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research. Joskow has served on the U.S. EPA's Acid Rain Advisory Committee and on the Environmental Economics Committee of the EPA's Science Advisory Board. Joskow is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

He received a B.A. from Cornell University in 1968 and a Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University in 1972.