Saleh Zakerinia

Research

Publications

• A Comment on “The Heterogeneous Tax Pass-Through Under Different Vertical Relationships” by Bajo-Buenestado and Borrella-Mas

  with Ismail El Fassi

  Conditionally accepted · The Economic Journal

  Shows that the estimated difference in fuel-tax pass-through between vertically integrated and independent petrol stations is driven by an omitted group-specific post-reform price trend. Once that trend is included, the differential disappears for diesel and is roughly halved for gasoline.

Working Papers

• What Is Accumulated AI Innovation Worth? Selection versus Learning in AI Patenting Working paper, 2026

  Asks whether firms get better at AI by doing AI, or whether already-capable firms simply do more of it. Accumulated experience makes patenting cheaper, producing fewer examiner rejections and faster time to grant, but does not make the patents more valuable, suggesting that the strong link between experience and patent value reflects selection on a persistent firm capability rather than learning.

  Presented at MaCCI Annual Conference, Mannheim, 2026; Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).

  Scheduled 3rd Cornell Economics Alumni Workshop, 2026; 53rd EARIE Annual Conference, Mannheim, August 2026.

  Draft available upon request

• Displacement or Complementarity? The Labor Market Impact of Generative AI

  with Wilbur Xinyuan Chen and Suraj Srinivasan

  Harvard Business School Working Paper 25-039

  Uses the release of ChatGPT and a near-universe of U.S. job postings linked to O*NET tasks to show that hiring contracts and skill requirements narrow in occupations generative AI can automate, while in occupations it complements, the content of jobs is rewritten rather than the volume of hiring.

  Presented at European Association of Young Economists (EAYE) Annual Meeting, Bilbao, 2026; 24th ZEW Conference on the Economics of Information and Communication Technologies, 2025; Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Montreal, 2025.

  Coverage “Enhance or Eliminate? How AI Will Likely Change These Jobs,” HBS Working Knowledge, 2026; “Can AI do your job? New Harvard Business School research shows how tech could reshape 900 careers,” WBAL-TV.

• AI Beyond the Frontier: The Value of Downstream AI Innovation

  with Wilbur Xinyuan Chen, Terrence Tianshuo Shi and Suraj Srinivasan

  Working paper, 2026

  Separates specialist AI developers from the downstream integrators that apply AI across products, services, and operations, and asks how investors value the latter's innovation. Across 1.8 million patents from 2001 to 2023, integrators' AI patents carry a 6.9 percent value premium over comparable non-AI patents, traceable to knowledge spillovers from specialist developers and followed by higher profitability margins and market share.

  Presented at Hawaii Accounting Research Conference, 2025.

  Presented by coauthors at Harvard Business School; Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; Tsinghua University; China Europe International Business School.

  Coverage “A ‘Tool for Winners’: What 1.8 Million Patents Reveal About AI’s Value,” HBS Working Knowledge, 2026.

• The Economic Benefits of Modular Innovation

  with Nathan Yang and Vithala R. Rao

  Working paper, 2026

  A three-stage model of R&D, licensing, and differentiated price competition asking when modular innovation raises welfare, and who captures the gains. Contract form and bargaining power, rather than the technology itself, determine whether consumers see any benefit.

  Presented at Western Economic Association International, 101st Annual Conference (CSWEP session), 2026.

• Using Quantum Game Theory to Model Competition

  with Vithala R. Rao and Nathan Yang

  Working paper

  Embeds quantum principles in classical game-theoretic frameworks, expanding the set of feasible equilibria and often softening competition across canonical settings including Bertrand and Cournot competition, Stackelberg leadership, and auctions.

Work in Progress

• Modularity and the Market for Technology: Evidence from Patent Licensing

  with Nathan Yang

  Empirical companion to The Economic Benefits of Modular Innovation.

• Two Hours or Two Days? Impact of Faster Delivery Service on Online Shopping

  with Jura Liaukonyte

Teaching

Teaching Assistant, Cornell University

• Leadership and Management in Sports · Fall 2023
• Strategic Pricing · Winter 2020, 2022, 2024
• Advertising Strategy · Fall 2021, 2022
• The Economics and Psychology of Sustainable Business · Fall 2021
• Applied Macroeconomics · Fall 2020
• Resource Economics · Spring 2020
• Behavioral Economics and Managerial Decisions · Fall 2019

Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award, Cornell University, 2022.