Dr. Wesley Cohen

Biography

Wesley M. Cohen is the Snow Family Professor at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University. He has secondary appointments in Duke's Department of Economics and School of Law and is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Professor Cohen serves as the Faculty Director of the Fuqua School’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Joining Duke in 2002, he previously taught for 20 years at Carnegie Mellon University and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Business School. His research focuses on the economics of technological change and R&D, examining the determinants of innovative activity and performance, including factors like firm size and market structure. He has published extensively in prominent journals such as the American Economic Review and Management Science and has received funding from various foundations including the National Science Foundation and the Kauffman Foundation. Cohen has served as the Main Editor for Research Policy and participated in multiple National Academies committees, contributing to the discourse on intellectual property rights. In 2008, he was named one of the World Economic Forum’s “Global Innovation 100.” He teaches courses related to economics, policy analysis, and corporate strategy, and also consults on legal issues related to intellectual property.

Research Interests