Lee Branstetter

• Financial Times - The lessons from China's dominance in manufacturing (05-28-2025)
• Wall Street Journal - The Fortress That China Built for Its Battle With America (05-21-2025)
• Salon - TikTok has a way to bypass tariffs — but is it legit? (05-10-2025)
• The Guardian - Trump’s tariffs: ‘It feels like Covid 2.0. So many things are getting disrupted’ (05-01-2025)
• PHYS.org - Cybersecurity educators should share resources to teach students important technical and non-technical skills (04-24-2025)
• NBC News - Trump says the U.S. and China are 'actively' discussing tariffs. Beijing says that's false. (04-24-2025)
• CNN - Want evidence Trump’s tariffs are upending the global economy? Here it is (04-22-2025)
• CFO Dive - Walking a tightrope: 6 CFO trends for 2025 (01-07-2025)
• Nikkei Asia - For Xi Jinping, 'Made in China 2025' has been worth every penny (12-20-2024)
• Center for Strategic and International Studies - Does Chinese Industrial Policy Work?: A Big Data China Event (11-05-2024)
• The Tax Center - Leveraging Tax Policy to Bolster US Economic Growth Amid Competition with China (10-09-2024)
• Tax Foundation - So-Called Strategic Tariffs Are Still Tariffs—and Still Protectionist (05-14-2024)
• Expert File - Is the economy on thin ice? Our expert can explain (05-02-2024)
• The Economist - Welcome to a golden age for workers (11-29-2023)
• EurekAlert - Chinese government’s corporate subsidies have had little effect on firms’ productivity (10-10-2023)
• Technical.ly - CMU’s Block Center named these 9 Build Back Better subgrant awardees (10-04-2023)
• The Economist - “Homeland economics” will make the world poorer (10-02-2023)
• East Asia Forum - Government Subsidies Don't Boost Chinese Firms' Productivity – Analysis (09-14-2023)
• Mint - Adopt clear evaluation criteria for industrial policies (08-22-2023)
• WealthWellness - Has China’s industrial policy worked? Interview with Lee Branstetter (07-07-2023)
• The Information - The Electric: Beware the Pitfalls of a Subsidized EV and Battery Industry (04-17-2023)
• Econbrowser - Event: “Managing the U.S.-China Trade and Technology Conflict: Is There a Better Way?” (04-15-2023)
• The Daily Reflector - Letter: Debt ceiling is American Exceptionalism at its worst (01-21-2023)

Unleashing the Dragon: The Case for Patent Reform in China, CMU Working Paper. Branstetter, L., Hanley, D., and Zhang, H.

Quantifying the Impact of AI on Productivity and Labor Demand:  Evidence from U.S. Census Microdata,  CMU Working Paper. Alderucci, D., Branstetter, L., Hovy, E., Runge, A., Ryskina, M., and Zolas, N.

Knowledge Transfer Abroad: The Role of US Inventors within Global R&D Networks.  Branstetter, L., Glennon, B., and Jensen, J.

The China Shock and Employment in Portuguese Firms, Reject and Resubmit, Economic Journal. Branstetter, L., Kovak, B., Mauro, J., and Venancio, A.

Bridge to Excellence?  The Impact of International Coinvention on Multinational R&D in China.  Branstetter, L., Li, G., and Veloso, F.

Does Offshoring Manufacturing Harm Innovation in the Home Country?  Evidence from Taiwan and China.  NBER Working Paper no. 29117. Branstetter, L., Chen, J. R., Glennon, B., Yang, C. H., and Zolas, N.

The Incredible Shrinking Portuguese Firm.  NBER working paper 17265. Braguinsky, S., Branstetter, L., and Regateiro, A.

Is Academic Science Driving a Surge in Industrial Innovation?  Evidence from Patent Citations.  NBER working paper no. 11561. Branstetter, L., and Ogura, Y.

Report on the State of Available Data for the Study of International Trade and Foreign Direct Investment.   NBER working paper no. 16254. Branstetter, L., Feenstra, R., Foley, C. F., Harrigan, J., Jensen, J. B., Kletzer, L., Lipsey, R., Mann, C., Schott, P., and Wright, G.

Strong Medicine: The Impact of Patent Reform on the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry. Arora, A., Branstetter, L., and Chatterjee, C.

Who’s Your Daddy?  Foreign Investor Origin, Multi-Product Firms, and the Benefits of Foreign Direct Investment. Branstetter, L., and Drev., M.

“Get with the Program: Software-driven Innovation in Traditional Manufacturing,” Branstetter, L., Drev., M., and Kwon, N., forthcoming Management Science.  Previously circulated as NBER WP no. 21752.

"A Sunny Future: Expert Elicitation of China’s Solar Photovoltaic Technologies," Lam, L., Branstetter, L., Azevedo, I., A., forthcoming, Environmental Research Letters. 

“South Korea’s Transition from Imitator to Innovator,” Branstetter, L. and Kwon, N., forthcoming, Journal of the Japanese and International Economies.

“China’s Wind Industry:  Leading in Deployment, Lagging in Innovation,” Lam, L., Branstetter, L., and Azevedo, I., Energy Policy, 106, July 2017, pp. 588-599.

“Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation, and Development:  Is Asia Different?” Branstetter, L., Millennial Asia, 8 (4), April 2017, pp. 5-25.

“Regulation and Welfare: Evidence from Paragraph IV Generic Entry in the Pharmaceutical Industry,” Branstetter, L., Chatterjee, C., and Higgins, M., RAND Journal of Economics, 47 (4), Winter 2016, pp. 857-890.

“China’s Wind Electricity and Cost of Carbon Mitigation are More Expensive than Anticipated.” Lam, L., Branstetter, L., Azevedo, I., (2016) Environmental Research Letters, 11 084015.

“The Rise of International Co-Invention,”Branstetter, L., Li, G., and Veloso, F., in A. Jaffe and B. Jones (eds.), The Changing Frontier: Rethinking Science and Innovation Policy, NBER and University of Chicago Press, 2015.

"Do Entry Regulations Deter Entrepreneurship and Job Creation? Evidence from Recent Reforms in Portugal," Branstetter, L., Lima, F., Taylor, L., and Venancio, A., Economic Journal, vol. 124, June 2014, pp. 805-832.

"Facing the Climate Change Challenge in a Global Economy." Branstetter, L., and Pizer, W., in R. Feenstra and A. Taylor (eds.), Globalization in an Age of Crisis, 2014, NBER and University of Chicago Press.

"Going Soft: How the Rise of Software-Based Innovation Led to the Decline of Japan's IT Industry and the Resurgence of Silicon Valley," with Ashish Arora (Duke) and Matej Drev (CMU). Review of Economics and Statistics, vol. 95, no. 3, July 2013, pp. 757-775.

"Intellectual Property Rights, Foreign Direct Investment, and Industrial Development," with Kamal Saggi (Vanderbilt). Economic Journal, vol. 121, no. 555, September 2011, pp. 1161-1191.

"Does Intellectual Property Rights Reform Spur Industrial Development?" with Raymond Fisman (Columbia), Fritz Foley (HBS), and Kamal Saggi (Vanderbilt). Journal of International Economics, vol. 83, Spring 2011, pp 27-36.

"China's Embrace of Globalization," with Nicholas Lardy (Institute for International Economics), in Loren Brandt and Thomas Rawski, (eds.), China's Economic Transition: Origins, Mechanisms, and Consequences, 2008, Cambridge University Press.

"Do Stronger Intellectual Property Rights Increase International Technology Transfer? Empirical Evidence from U.S. Firm-Level Data," with Raymond Fisman (Columbia) and Fritz Foley (HBS). Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 121, no. 1, pp. 321-349.

"When Do Research Consortia Work Well and Why? Evidence from Japanese Panel Data," with Mariko Sakakibara (UCLA), American Economic Review, vol. 92, no. 1, March 2002, pp. 143-159.

"Do Stronger Patents Induce More Innovation? Evidence from the 1988 Japanese Patent Law Reforms," with Mariko Sakakibara (UCLA), RAND Journal of Economics, vol. 32, no. 1, Spring 2001, pp. 77-100. Reprinted in R. Towse and R. Holzhauer, (eds.), The Economics of Intellectual Property, Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 2001. Reprinted in K. Maskus, (ed.), The WTO, Intellectual Property, and the Knowledge Economy, a forthcoming volume in the series Critical Perspectives on the Global Trading System and the WTO, Edward Elgar Press.

"Is Foreign Direct Investment a Channel of Knowledge Spillovers: Evidence from Japan's FDI in the United States," Journal of International Economics, vol. 68, February 2006, pp. 325-344.

"Trade and Foreign Direct Investment in China: A Political Economy Approach," with Robert Feenstra (UC-Davis), Journal of International Economics, vol. 58, no. 2, December 2002, pp. 335-358.

"Are Knowledge Spillovers International or Intranational in Scope? Microeconometric Evidence from Japan and the United States," Journal of International Economics, vol. 53, February 2001, pp. 53-79.

"Japanese Research Consortia: A Microeconometric Analysis of Industrial Policy," with Mariko Sakakibara (UCLA), Journal of Industrial Economics, vol. 46, no. 2, June 1998, pp. 207-233.

"Measuring the Impact of U.S. Research Consortia," with Mariko Sakakibara (UCLA), Managerial and Decision Economics, vol. 24, Spring 2003, pp. 51-69.

"Looking for International Knowledge Spillovers: A Review of the Literature with Suggestions for New Approaches," Annales d'Economie et de Statistique, No. 49/50, 1998, pp. 517-540. Reprinted in D. Encaoua et. al., (eds.), The Economics and Econometrics of Innovation, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000.

"Do Stronger Patents Induce More Local Innovation?" Journal of International Economic Law, vol. 7, no. 2, 2004, pp. 359-370. Reprinted in Keith Maskus and Jerome Reichman, eds., International Public Goods and Transfer of Technology Under a Globalized Intellectual Property Regime, Cambridge University Press, 2005.

• 2023 Appointed to a second term on the Academic Advisory Committee of the Japan Foundation; member the Doctoral Fellowship Subcommittee.
• 2020 Appointed to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (the Academies) Committee on Security of America’s Medical Product Supply Chain.
• 2019 Appointed to the Academic Advisory Committee of the Japan Foundation; member of the Doctoral Fellowship Subcommittee.
• 2004 Appointed to the Daniel Stanton Associate Professorship in recognition of outstanding service, teaching, and scholarship at Columbia Business School.
• 2002 Awarded the Chazen Innovation Prize for Innovative Teaching in International Business at Columbia Business School.
• 2001 Awarded an Abe Fellowship by the Social Science Research Council.
• 2000 Thomas Mayer Distinguished Teaching Award, UC-Davis Department of Economics.
• 1998 Awarded UC-Davis Teaching Resource Center grant to conduct an internet videoconference linking UC-Davis undergraduates with experts at the World Bank, the IMF, and the Brookings Institution.
• 1995 Harvard University Certification for Teaching Excellence.
• 1994 Awarded Japan Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to pursue dissertation research in Japan.
• 1994 Sumner Slichter Fellowship, Harvard Department of Economics.
• 1993 Awarded a research grant by the Reischauer Institute of Harvard University to pursue dissertation research at the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.
• 1993 Harvard University Teaching Fellowship.
• 1992 Awarded grant by the Reischauer Institute of Harvard University to pursue advanced Japanese language study at the Middlebury College Advanced Summer Japanese Program.
• 1991-1994 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.