Julian Kolev

Senior Research Economist

Julian Kolev is a Senior Research Economist at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). His current research focuses on the drivers of innovation and technological change, as well as the influence of funding availability and financial constraints on the decisions of innovators, entrepreneurs, and established firms. He has published journal articles, textbook chapters, and working papers on topics including the impact of openness on innovation, the determinants of successful technology transfer from universities to the private sector, the role of gender differences in scientific communication as drivers of grant funding decisions, and the effects of piracy on the innovation and performance of software firms.  Dr. Kolev holds a Ph.D. in business economics from Harvard Business School and a B.A. in economics from Harvard College. Prior to joining the USPTO, he was an assistant professor of strategy, entrepreneurship, and business economics at Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business, and was a post-doctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management.

Selected publications

Bradley, W., & Kolev, J. (2023). “Competitive Dynamism in Nascent Markets: Trademarks and Superstar Firm Entry in the Metaverse.” USPTO Working Paper 2023-1. Available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4576986

Bradley, W. & Kolev, J. (2023). "How does digital piracy affect innovation? Evidence from software firms” (Volume 52, Issue 3). Research Policy. Available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2022.104701

Kolev, J., Haughey, A., Murray, F., & Stern, S. (2022). “Of Academics and Creative Destruction: Startup Advantage in the Process of Innovation” (No. w30362). National Bureau of Economic Research. Available at https://www.nber.org/papers/w30362

Kolev, J., Fuentes-Medel, Y., & Murray, F. (2020). “Gender differences in scientific communication and their impact on grant funding decisions.” In AEA Papers and Proceedings (Vol. 110, pp. 245-49). Available at https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pandp.20201043

Kolev, J., Fuentes-Medel, Y., & Murray, F. (2019). “Is blinded review enough? How gendered outcomes arise even under anonymous evaluation” (No. w25759). National Bureau of Economic Research. Available at https://www.nber.org/papers/w25759

Murray, F., Aghion, P., Dewatripont, M., Kolev, J., & Stern, S. (2016). “Of mice and academics: Examining the effect of openness on innovation.” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 8(1), 212-52. Available at https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pol.20140062

Murray, F., & Kolev, J. (2015). “An Entrepreneur’s Guide to the University.” The Chicago handbook of university technology transfer and academic entrepreneurship, 97-137.

Aghion, P., Dewatripont, M., Kolev, J., Murray, F., & Stern, S. (2010). “The public and private sectors in the process of innovation: Theory and evidence from the mouse genetics revolution.” American Economic Review, 100(2), 153-58. Available at https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.100.2.153