Tim Bresnahan
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timobres.bsky.social
Tim Bresnahan
@timobres.bsky.social
6K followers 2.3K following 390 posts
Economist, old guy. Interested in competition and innovation econs.

https://tbres.su.domains/
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timobres.bsky.social
New Working Paper! Lucky to work with Shane Greenstein @shanegreenstein.bsky.social and Pai-Ling Yin on "New Economic Forces Behind the Value Distribution of Innovation." Abstract and link follow.

lnkd.in/ew6UHk3v
Abstract of "New Economic Forces Behind the Value Distribution of Innovation." Advances in a general-purpose technology (GPT) enable many firms to invent complementary inventions, or co-inventions, making the GPT more valuable. This study examines the empirical implications of a straightforward model in which firms choose either incremental or novel co-invention. Incremental co-inventors aspire to small gains at low costs and with less uncertainty. Novel co-inventors introduce new products or services with the potential for large returns, but do so at high costs and with uncertain outcomes. Similar firms investing in incremental co-invention will create value proportional to their existing business, a benchmark we illustrate with the experiences at local radio and newspapers. The study then examines the value of co-inventions for the World Wide Web and mobile ecosystems, focusing on success in 2013, using data from many sources. This data supports analysis comparing the incremental and novel regimes. The latter should display a distinctly different up! per tail of the distribution of returns. We show that the value distributions for incremental and novel co-invention are far apart. Incremental co-invention is more widely distributed across regions, industries, and firms. Success from novel co-invention is rare, challenging, and the source of the largest value. In the aggregate, novel co-invention creates the most value, so the overall value distribution remains concentrated in a few industries, regions, and firms.
August 8, 2025 at 9:37 PM
timobres.bsky.social
Mike Scherer, a leader in industrial organization economics, in the study of innovation, and in many other topics since the 1960s, has died at 92. Strikingly eclectic, he wrote (inter alia) about weapons procurement and the commercialization of classical music. More than anything /1
Cover of "Industrial Market Structure and Economic Performance"
June 2, 2025 at 3:29 PM
timobres.bsky.social
Literary cat predicts Pulitzer.
May 8, 2025 at 2:33 PM
timobres.bsky.social
Zvi Griliches!
Zvi Griliches from the Jerusalem Post (didn't check copyright....)
March 15, 2025 at 7:14 PM
timobres.bsky.social
I just added my BlueSky contact to my RePEc profile. Easy to do, login, go to contacts page (see pic) and fill it in. #EconSky Thanks to @czimm-economist.bsky.social

For civilians, RePEc is a valuable sharing site for research papers in economics.
Picture of Tim's RePEc contacts page with his BlueSky handle added.
November 17, 2024 at 6:10 PM
timobres.bsky.social
The NBER Innovation Information Initiative will award five or more fellowships of $1500 each to graduate students in economics, innovation, entrepreneurship, or related fields. Applications open at link below. Full deets in picture. "Outsiders" encouraged to apply.
Details of application process from NBER email, including oppty to contact organizers to contact Bhaven Sampat (bhaven.sampat@asu.edu) and/or Agnes Cameron (agnescam@mit.edu)
November 13, 2024 at 6:54 PM
timobres.bsky.social
NBER Fellowship applications list -- Graduate students, postdocs, etc. Need not be NBER affiliate to apply. Some deadlines looming. #EconSky
October 29, 2024 at 11:04 PM
timobres.bsky.social
Submit a paper about new data or methods re: innovation, science, entrepreneurship etc. Mtg Dec 6/7 in Cambridge. Non-NBER affiliates with assets encouraged to apply. DM and I will forward you full email.
www.nber.org/confsubmit/b...
The next meeting of the NBER Innovation Information Initiative (I3) Technical Working Group will be held on December 6 and 7, 2024 immediately following the NBER Place-Based Policies and Entrepeneurship meeting. The aim of I3 is to support the production and dissemination of open data for research on innovation, science, entrepreneurship, and related fields. The Technical Working Group will feature "deep dive" presentations of novel datasets or research tools (including efforts in progress that would benefit from community feedback or collaboration) that are or will be made openly available. Please submit either (a) an extended abstract of five pages or less describing the new dataset or tool you propose to present, its potential value to the research community, and your plans for public dissemination, or (b) a research paper that fully describes data construction (or has a comprehensive data appendix) along with a short cover note describing the value of the dataset (or tool) to the
September 20, 2024 at 3:48 PM
timobres.bsky.social
NBER is coming to BlueSky. AEA, SIEPR, others soon too. Write your friendly AEA ad hoc Social Media Committee about other content you would like to see and we will lobby for it. social_media_committee@aeapubs.org
September 6, 2024 at 7:33 PM
timobres.bsky.social
Delighted to welcome @siepr.bsky.social! Hoping to see many more important economics institutions here.
September 4, 2024 at 8:57 PM
timobres.bsky.social
Submit to NBER winter IO Meeting (deets in pic)
September 3, 2024 at 5:33 PM
timobres.bsky.social
September 2, 2024 at 4:40 PM
timobres.bsky.social
NBER WP weekly announcement will likely come to #EconSky soon. For now, my limited snipping skills
September 2, 2024 at 4:39 PM
timobres.bsky.social
Two fawns across the street (mama nearby, eating trees). Have a happy labor day, everyone.
Two fawns across the street from my house.
September 1, 2024 at 11:37 PM
timobres.bsky.social
Updating in light of events.
Arlington National Cemetery.
August 31, 2024 at 7:51 PM
timobres.bsky.social
My cat, Roscoe.
Roscoe under the bed tangled in covers.
August 24, 2024 at 2:36 PM
timobres.bsky.social
Post a non-religious picture you think of as holy.
Pension building in Washington DC, dedicated to those killed or wounded in military service and to their families.
August 16, 2024 at 9:06 PM
timobres.bsky.social
Basic training in Econ for budding journalists, in 4 easy lessons.
Freshman: explain why the headline and the graph caption are error.
Sophomore: The NYT fixed those overnight. Find an error in the fix.
Junior: Explain why the premise of the story is silly.
Senior: Sorry, no 4th year errors.
February 21, 2024 at 11:30 PM