
James Bessen
Lecturer
Executive Director, Technology & Policy Research Initiative
Director and Founder, Research on Innovation
AB, Harvard College
Areas of Interest
Contact
- Office 904E
- Email jbessen@bu.edu
- Phone 617-358-5464
Biography
James Bessen, an economist, serves as Executive Director of the Technology & Policy Research Initiative at Boston University School of Law. Mr. Bessen has done research on whether patents promote innovation, why innovators share new knowledge, and how technology affects jobs, skills, and wages. With Michael J. Meurer, Bessen wrote Patent Failure (Princeton University Press, 2008), highlighting the problems caused by poorly defined property rights. His research first documented the large economic damage caused by patent trolls and showed the link between information technology and job growth. His latest book, Learning by Doing: The Real Connection Between Innovation, Wages, and Wealth (Yale University Press, 2015), looks at history to understand how new technologies affect wages and skills today. Bessen’s work has been widely cited in the press as well as by the White House, the US Supreme Court, judges at the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the Federal Trade Commission. In 1983, Bessen developed the first commercially successful “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” PC publishing program, founding a company that delivered PC-based publishing systems to high-end commercial publishers.
Publications
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James Bessen, "How big technology systems are slowing innovation," MIT Technology Review (Feb. 17, 2022).
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James Bessen, The New Goliaths: How Corporations Use Software to Dominate Industries, Kill Innovation, and Undermine Regulation, Yale University Press (forthcoming).
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James Bessen, "Billion-dollar blueprints: A new way of understanding the high but elusive worth of intellectual property," The Economist (Dec. 4, 2021).
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Unlocking Frontier Technology: The Policy Challenge of the Digital Economy, The Progressive Policy Institute, (May 6, 2021).
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James Bessen, "Information Technology and Industry Concentration," 63 Journal of Law & Economics 531 (2020).
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James Bessen, "The Policy Challenge of Artificial Intelligence," Spring 2018 CPI Antitrust Chronicle (2018).
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James Bessen, "AI and Jobs: The Role of Demand," Boston University School of Law Law & Economics Paper Series (2017).
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Michael Meurer & James Bessen, "The Direct Costs from NPE Disputes," 99 Cornell Law Review 387 (2014).
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James Bessen & Brian Love, "Make the Patent “Polluters” Pay: Using Pigovian Fees to Curb Patent Abuse," 4 California Law Review Circuit 84 (2013).
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Michael Meurer & James Bessen, "The Private and Social Costs of Patent Trolls," 34:4 Regulation 26 (2011-12).
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Michael Meurer & James Bessen, Patent Failure: How Judges, Bureaucrats, and Lawyers Put Innovators at Risk, Princeton University Press (2008).
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Michael Meurer & James Bessen, "What's Wrong with the Patent System? Fuzzy Boundaries and the Patent Tax," 12:6 First Monday (2007).
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Michael Meurer & James Bessen, "Patent Litigation with Endogenous Disputes," 96 American Economic Review Papers & Proceedings 77 (2006).
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Michael Meurer & James Bessen, "Lessons for Patent Policy from Empirical Research on Patent Litigation," 9 Lewis and Clark Law Review 1 (2005). Reprinted in Intellectual Property and Information Wealth: Issues and Practices in the Digital Age, Peter K. Yu, ed., Praeger (2007).
Westlaw | SSRN | HeinOnline (BU) | HeinOnline | Scholarly Commons
In the Media
- May 18, 2022
The Startup CEO’s Imperative: Taking The Driver’s Seat in Pay Equity
James Bessen's research is referenced. read more
- May 9, 2022
Psychedelic Patents Are Broken Because The Patent System Is Broken
Jim Bessenn is quoted. read more
- February 17, 2022
How Big Technology Systems Are Slowing Innovation
A piece authored by James Bessen. read more
- February 10, 2022
Famed Alzheimer’s Researcher John Hardy Is a Knight … but Not in Shining Armor
James Bessen and Michael Meurer are quoted. read more
- February 5, 2022
Asking for Salary Slips: Can Today’s Hiring Process Do Away With It?
James Bessen is featured in ETHRWorld. read more
- December 3, 2021
A New Way of Understanding the High but Elusive Worth of Intellectual Property
A piece authored by James Bessen. read more
- October 15, 2021
Would Robot Umpires Have Prevented the Wilmer Flores Giants-Dodgers Controversy?
James Bessen is quoted. read more
- July 14, 2021
Nonprofit ‘Salary Secrecy’ Targeted in the Name of Pay Equity
James Bessen, Erich Denk, and Chen Meng's research is cited. read more
- April 27, 2021
Made in the USA – Episode 4: Making the Case for Manufacturing
James Bessen is interviewed. read more
- April 25, 2021
What We Get Wrong About Machines Taking Our Jobs
James Bessen is quoted. read more