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From policy to engineering In 1989, the great economist Hal Varian declared that economics is a “policy science.” That is ironic, because in 2002, Varian left academia to serve as the chief economist at Google. Nor was the hire a symbolic one. At Google, Varian implemented the system that would end up making that internet titan much of its profit–the system of auctions that powers its online advertising system. Ever wonder why no search engine made Google-like cash in the days before Google? It’s because they didn’t have auction theory. Everyone knows that Google is staffed by brilliant engineers, but it was economists who designed the real secret sauce. - qz.com