Noam attended Harvard University, where he obtained several degrees, including an A.B. 1970 (Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude thesis), an A.M. 1972, a J.D. 1975 and a Ph.D. in Economics 1975. His dissertation advisor was Martin Feldstein.

Noam served in the Israel Air Force during the Six-Day War in 1967 and the October War in 1973. He also served with the Civil Air Patrol as a 1st Lt., Mission Pilot for Search and Rescue with New York Wing and Phoenix Squadron.

Noam began working at Columbia Business School in 1976. He has split his time at the school with a brief stint as Commissioner of the New York State Public Service Commission. He has also taught at Columbia Law School, the Princeton University Economics Department, the Woodrow Wilson School (1975—1976), and the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland (1998—2000). Noam returned to the business school in 1990 where he now serves as the Managing director of the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI), a research center at the school. CITI is a university-based research center focusing on strategy, management, and policy issues in telecommunications, computing, and electronic mass media. In addition to leading CITI's research activities, Noam worked on the MBA concentration in the Management of Media, Communications, and Information at the Business School and the Virtual Institute of Information, an independent, web-based research facility. Noam has written approximately 400 articles on subjects such as communications, information, public choice, public finance, and general regulation. 1

Books

• Competition for the Mobile Internet, Dan Steinbock (Editor) and Eli Noam (Editor) (Artech, 2004) ISBN 978-1402070563
• Interconnecting the Network of Networks by Eli M. Noam (MIT Press, 2001) ISBN 978-0262140720
• Telecommunications in Africa. (Oxford, 1999) ISBN 978-0195102017
• The Telecommunications Revolution (Routledge, 1992)
• The New Investment Theory of Real Options and its Implication for Telecommunications Economics James J. Alleman (Editor) with Eli M. Noam (Editor) ISBN 978-0792377344
• Video Media Competition: Regulation, Economics, and Technology (Columbia, 1985)
• Telecommunications Regulation: Today and Tomorrow (Harcourt, 1982) ISBN 978-0150042945
• The Impact of Information Technologies on the Service Sector. Ballinger, 1986.
• Law of International Telecommunications in the United States. Namos, 1988.
• The Cost of Libel. (Columbia, 1989)
• Technology Without Boundaries. (Harvard, 1990)
• Telecommunications in Europe. Oxford, 1992)
• Television in Europe. (Oxford, 1992)
• The Telecommunications Revolution. (Routledge, 1992)
• Asymmetric Deregulation. (Ablex, 1992)
• The International Market for Film and Television Programs. (Ablex, 1993)
• Telecommunications in the Pacific Basin. (Oxford, 1994)
• Privacy in Telecommunications: Markets, Rights, and Regulations. (United Church of Christ, 1994)
• Private Networks and Public Objectives. (Elsevier , 1997)
• Globalism and Localism in Telecommunications. (Elsevier, 1997)
• Telecommunications in Latin America. (Oxford, 1998)
• Telecommunications in Western Asia. (Oxford, 1998)
• Public Television in America. (Bertelsmann, 1998)
• Telecommunications in Africa. (Oxford, 1999)
• Real Options: The New Investment Theory and its Implications for Telecommunications Economics. (Kluwer, 2000)
• Interconnecting the Network of Networks. MIT, Cambridge, MA, 2001.
• Internet Television, Eli Noam, Jo Groebel, Darcy Gerbarg, editors (Erlbaum, 2004)
• Competition for the Mobile Internet, Dan Steinbock and Eli Noam (Artech, 2004)
• Mobile Media Content and Services for Wireless Communications, Jo Groebel, Eli Noam and Valerie Feldman, editors (Erlbaum, 2005)

In Japanese

• The New Economy, Eli Noam, Thomas Hazlett, Lawrence Lessig, Richard Epstein (2005)