Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced his chief economist will be an antitrust expert who held the top economist slot at the Federal Trade Commission, Jonathan Baker.

Baker teaches antitrust at the Washington College of Law at American University School, and prior to his work at the FTC during the Clinton administration, he had worked as a senior economist at the President's Council of Economic Advisers and as a special assistant to the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Economics in the antitrust division at the Justice Department.

"To tackle complex communications challenges, the FCC must be smart about a broad array of disciplines, including economics and business, technology, and the law -- as well as the everyday experience of consumers," Genachowski said. He added that his new team, including Baker "will help the agency tremendously in its push to engage in data-driven decision-making, grounded in hard facts, real-world experience, and sound economic analysis."

Baker's move to the FCC is in line with what appears to be a revolving door for economists between the communications regulator and the antitrust agencies.

Current FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz has also tapped Joe Farrell to be director of the economics bureau. Farrell previously worked at both the FCC and the Justice Department's antitrust division. Howard Shelanski, who is also at the FTC, once held the top FCC economist slot and also worked on the President's Council of Economic Advisers.

At the DOJ, a close colleague and sometime co-author of Baker's, Carl Shapiro is once again the deputy assistant attorney general for antitrust, as he was early in the Clinton administration. The close relationships among the economists is expected to help the agencies improve their ability to communicate about and agree on competition issues including controversial mergers. Baker and Shapiro raised what constitutes a ruckus in antitrust circles when they penned a 2007 article taking the Bush aAdministration Justice Department to task for what they saw as an "overly lax" approach to merger enforcement.