Research Interests: Macroeconomics, Economic Growth, Firm Dynamics, Innovation, Entrepreneurship.

Small Business Index

• “Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Index” (w/ Raman Chhina, Seyit Cilasun, Javier Miranda, Eren Ocakverdi, Nicolas Serrano-Velarde). March, 2023.
  Description: In partnership with Intuit QuickBooks, we launched a new Index to measure the performance of the smallest of the small businesses (at most 9 workers in the US and UK and at most 19 workers in Canada) through anonymized and aggregated QuickBooks Payroll records.

• Methodology paper: “Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Index: A New Employment Series for the US, Canada, and the UK,” (w/ Raman Chhina, Seyit Cilasun, Javier Miranda, Eren Ocakverdi, Nicolas Serrano-Velarde), NBER Working Paper #31350.

• Annual Report: “Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Index Annual Report 2023,” (w/ Raman Chhina, Seyit Cilasun, Javier Miranda, Eren Ocakverdi, Nicolas Serrano-Velarde).

Book

• “The Economics of Creative Destruction” (editor with John Van Reenen). Harvard University Press, 2023, Cambridge, MA.

Article Publications

• “Measuring the Characteristics and Employment Dynamics of U.S. Inventors,” (w/ Nathan Goldschlag), Journal of Economic Growth, 2025, 30(2): 237 - 269.

• “Innovation and Trade Policy in a Globalized World,” 2025, Journal of Political Economy: Macroeconomics, forthcoming.

  • Read more at: The Atlantic, VoxEU, Chicago Booth Review.

• “Tapping into Talent: Coupling Education and Innovation Policies for Economic Growth,” (w/ Jeremy Pearce and Marta Prato), Review of Economic Studies, 2025, 92(2): 696–736.

• “What Happened to U.S. Business Dynamism?” (w/ Sina Ates). Journal of Political Economy, 2023, 131(8): 2059–2124.

• “Connecting to Power: Political Connections, Innovation, and Firm Dynamics” (w/ Salome Baslandze and Francesca Lotti). Econometrica, 2023, 91(2): 529-564.

• ”Fencing Off Silicon Valley: Cross-Border Venture Capital and Technology Spillovers, ” (w/ Sina T. Ates, Josh Lerner, Richard R. Townsend and Yulia Zhestkova), Journal of Monetary Economics, Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, 2024, 141: 14-39.

• “A Year Older, A Year Wiser (and Farther from Frontier): Invention Rents and Human Capital Depreciation” (w/ Philippe Aghion, Ari Hyytinen, and Otto Toivanen), Review of Economics and Statistics, 2024, 106(4): 974-982. Online Appendix.

• “Parental Education and Invention: The Finnish Enigma” (w/ Philippe Aghion, Ari Hyytinen, and Otto Toivanen), International Economic Review, 2023, 64(2): 453-490.

• “Synergizing Ventures” (w/ Emin Dinlersoz, Jeremy Greenwood, Veronika Penciakova). Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 2022, 143: 104427.

• “Optimal Taxation and R&D Policies” (w/ Douglas Hanley and Stefanie Stantcheva). Econometrica, 2022, 90(2): 645-684.

• “Taxation and Innovation in the 20th Century” (w/ John Grigsby, Tom Nicholas, and Stefanie Stantcheva). Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2022, 137(1): 329–385.

• “Taxation and Innovation: What Do We Know?” (w/ Stefanie Stantcheva). NBER Innovation and Public Policy, edited by Austan Goolsbee and Ben Jones, 2022, University of Chicago Press.

• “International Trade and Innovation” (w/ Marc Melitz). Handbook of International Economics, edited by Gita Gopinath, Elhanan Helpman, and Kenneth Rogoff, 2022, Vol 5:377-404, North-Holland.

• “Radical and Incremental Innovation: The Roles of Firms, Managers and Innovators”, (w/ Daron Acemoglu and Murat Alp Celik). American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 2022, 14(3): 199-249.

• “Rising Corporate Market Power: Emerging Policy Issues”, (w/ Wenjie Chen, Federico J. Díez, Romain Duval, Philipp Engler, Jiayue Fan, Chiara Maggi, Marina M. Tavares, Daniel Schwarz, Ippei Shibata, and Carolina Villegas-Sánchez). IMF Discussion Note, 2021, SDN/21/01.

• “Back to Basics: Basic Research Spillovers, Innovation Policy and Growth,” (w/ Doug Hanley and Nicolas Serrano-Velarde). Review of Economic Studies, 2021, 88(1): 1–43.

• “Ten Facts on Declining Business Dynamism and Lessons from Endogenous Growth Theory,” (w/ Sina Ates). American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 2021, 13(1): 257–298.

• “Lack of Selection and Limits to Delegation: Firm Dynamics in Developing Countries,” (w/ Harun Alp and Michael Peters). American Economic Review, 2021, 111(1): 231–275.

• “Facts on Business Dynamism in Turkey,” (w/ Yusuf Emre Akgunduz, Seyit Mumin Cilasun, Elif Özcan-Tok, and Fatih Yilmaz), 2020, European Economic Review, 2020, 128: 103490-103513.

• “History, Micro Data, and Endogenous Growth,” (w/ Tom Nicholas). Annual Review of Economics, 2019, 11: 615-633.

• “Innovation and Top Income Inequality,” (w/ Philippe Aghion, Antonin Bergeaud Richard Blundell, and David Hemous), Review of Economic Studies, 2019, 86(1): 1-45.

• “Innovation, Reallocation and Growth,” (w/ Daron Acemoglu, Harun Alp, Nick Bloom and William Kerr), American Economic Review, 2018, 108(11): 3450-3491.

• “Growth through Heterogeneous Innovations,” (w/ William Kerr). Journal of Political Economy, 2018, 126(4): 1374-1443.

• “On the Returns to Invention within Firms: Evidence from Finland,” (w/ Philippe Aghion, Ari Hyytinen, and Otto Toivanen). American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings, 2018, 108: 208-212.

• “Economic Growth: The Past, the Present, and the Future.” - Commemorative essay in “The Past, Present, and Future of Economics: A Celebration of the 125 Year Anniversary of the JPE and of Chicago Economics,” edited by John List and Harald Uhlig. Journal of Political Economy, 2017, 125(6): 1736-1747.

• “Immigration and the Rise of American Ingenuity,” (w/ John Grigsby and Tom Nicholas). American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, 2017, 107(5): 327-331.

• “Taxation and the International Mobility of Inventors,” (w/ Salome Baslandze and Stefanie Stantcheva), American Economic Review, 2016, 106(10): 2930-2981.

• “Creative Destruction and Subjective Well-Being,” (w/ Philippe Aghion, Angus Deaton and Alexandra Roulet), American Economic Review, 2016, 106(12): 3869-3897.

• “Buy, Keep or Sell: Economic Growth and the Market for Ideas,” (w/ Murat A. Celik and Jeremy Greenwood), Econometrica, 2016, 84(3): 943-984.

• “Innovation Network,” (w/ Daron Acemoglu and William Kerr), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2016, 113(41): 11483-11488.

• “Transition to Clean Technology,” (w/ Daron Acemoglu, Douglas Hanley and William Kerr), Journal of Political Economy, 2016, 124(1): 52-104.

• “The Role of Information in Innovation and Competition,” (w/ Qingmin Liu), Journal of the European Economic Association, 2016, 14(4): 828-870.

• “Taxation, Corruption and Growth,” (w/ Philippe Aghion, Julia Cage and William Kerr), European Economic Review, 2016, 86: 24-51.

• “Networks and the Macroeconomy: An Empirical Exploration,” (w/ Daron Acemoglu and William Kerr), in NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2015, ed. by Martin Eichenbaum and Jonathan Parker, 2016, Vol. 30: 276-335.

• “Lessons from Schumpeterian Growth Theory,” (w/ Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt), American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, 2015, 105(5): 94-99.

• “What Do We Learn from Schumpeterian Growth Theory,” (w/ Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt), Handbook of Economic Growth, ed. by P. Aghion, and S. N. Durlauf, 2014, Vol 2B: 515-563.

• “Intellectual Property Rights Policy, Competition and Innovation,” (w/ Daron Acemoglu), Journal of the European Economic Association, 2012, 10(1): 1-42

Working Papers

• “Transformative and Subsistence Entrepreneurs: Origins and Impacts on Economic Growth“ (w/ Harun Alp, Jeremy Pearce, and Marta Prato).

• “Credit Card Entrepreneurs,” (w/ Raman S. Chhina, Seyit Cilasun, Javier Miranda, and Nicolas Serrano-Velarde).

  • Read more at: New York Times, Reuters.

• “Committing to Grow: Employment Targets and Firm Dynamics,” (w/ Harun Alp, André Diegmann, Nicolas Serrano-Velarde), NBER Working Paper #31645.

• “Where Have All the "Creative Talents" Gone? Employment Dynamics of US Inventors,” (w/ Nathan Goldschlag), NBER Working Paper #31085.

  • Read more at: Wall Street Journal.

• ”The Patent Troll: Benign Middleman or Stick-Up Artist?” (w/ David Abrams, Gokhan Oz, and Jeremy Pearce), NBER Working Paper #25713.

• “Dancing with the Stars: Innovation through Interactions” (w/ Santiago Caicedo, Ernest Miguelez, Stefanie Stantcheva,  and Valerio Sterzi), NBER Working Paper #24466. (Revise and Resubmit, Econometrica.)

• ”The Rise of American Ingenuity: Innovation and Inventors of the Golden Age,” (w/ John Grigsby and Tom Nicholas), NBER Working Paper #23047.

  • Read more at: Harvard Business Review, VoxEU, Dialogo.

  • Here is a nice video by Harvard Business Review

• “The Social Origins and IQ of Inventors,” (w/ Philippe Aghion, Ari Hyytinen and Otto Toivanen), NBER Working Paper #24110, CEPR Discussion Paper #12496.

  • Read more at: Project Syndicate, Harvard Business Review, VoxEU, The Economist.

• “Tax Simplicity and Heterogeneous Learning,” (w/ Philippe Aghion, Matthieu Lequien, Stefanie Stantcheva), NBER Working Paper #24049.

  • Read more at: Washington Post

• “Patent Value and Citations: Creative Destruction or Strategic Disruption?” (w/ David S. Abrams and Jillian Grennan), NBER Working Paper #19647.

• “Optimal Capital Versus Labor Taxation with Innovation-Led Growth,” (w/ Philippe Aghion and Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde), NBER Working Paper #19086.

General Interest Writings

• Daron Acemoglu (1967-), In R. A. Cord (Eds.), The Palgrave Companion to MIT Economics, 2025, (pp.843–863). Palgrave Macmillan.