Helder Vasconcelos

Helder Vasconcelos is a Partner at RBB Economics. He is also a Full Professor of Economics at the University of Porto.

Helder served as a Member of the Board of ANACOM, the Portuguese Regulatory Authority for Telecommunications and Postal Services, from 2012 to 2017, and as a consultant to the Board of the Portuguese Competition Authority from 2007 to 2011. Recognised for his expertise, he is listed as a recommended leader in the Who's Who Legal directory of competition economists.

Helder has over two decades of experience in competition and regulation, having advised a broad range of clients in both the private and public sectors. Before joining RBB in 2025 he served as Senior Vice President at Compass Lexecon and Head of their Lisbon Office.

His practice covers a wide range of competition issues, with particular expertise in merger cases, Article 101 and Article 102 matters, and cartel damages litigation. Helder has played a pivotal role in several high-profile cases, including multiple follow-on damage claims in Portugal related to the truck cartel and the monoblocs cartel. He has given expert testimony before several competition authorities and has also substantial testifying experience (including in damages litigation) before the Competition, Regulation, and Supervision Court in Portugal.

Helder's academic contributions have had a significant impact on the field. His research primarily focuses on industrial organization, competition policy, and regulation, and his work has been published in leading international economic journals such as the Economic Journal, the RAND Journal of Economics, the European Economic Review, the Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, the Journal of Industrial Economics, and the International Journal of Industrial Organization. He has received numerous honours, including the International Journal of Industrial Organization Best Paper Award, both in 2015 and in 2006, as well as the Industrial Organization Society’s Best Paper/Younger Scholar Award in 2005.

In his previous academic roles, Helder was an Associate Professor at Universidade Católica Portuguesa (2007-2011), an Assistant Professor at Università Bocconi (2003-2007), and a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Institut D’Economie Industrielle (IDEI), University of Toulouse (2002-2003). He also served as Vice-Rector for Relations with Firms, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship at the University of Porto, and as the President of the Board of Directors of UPTEC, the Science and Technology Park of the University of Porto (2018-2019).

He obtained his PhD in Economics from the European University Institute, in 2002.