A CIRANO Associate Researcher and Fellow since 2006, Jean-François Houde is Associate Professor in the department of Economics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is also Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).

Holding a Ph.D. in Economics from Queen's University, he specializes in industrial organization. He is interested in the detection and measurement of market power; including questions related to spatial differentiation, collusion, vertical and horizontal mergers, price discrimination, and search frictions. He has studied a wide range of industries and markets: gasoline, mortgage, banking, e-commerce, electricity generation.

He first taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 2006 to 2012. He then spent four years as Assistant Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, followed by two years at Cornell University. He rejoined the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2018.