CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Timothy Bresnahan

economist (Stanford University; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER))

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 31, 2024
Entity authorityQ41799775 ↗
Source-derived summary

Timothy Francis Bresnahan (born 1953) is an American economist who researches industrial organization. He was a founding co-editor of the Annual Review of Economics, a fellow of the Econometric Society, and recipient of a BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in 2017.

Early life and education

Timothy Francis Bresnahan was born in 1953 to parents Nancy and Maurice F. Bresnahan. He grew up in Falls Church, Virginia with three siblings; his father worked for the government in the Bureau of Labor Statistics. He attended Haverford College where he received a bachelor's degree in economics and German in 1975. He received a master's from Princeton University in 1978 and stayed to earn a PhD in 1980, both in economics.

Career

Bresnahan began working at Stanford University as an assistant professor in 1979. In 1986 he was promoted to associate professor; he held various outside positions in the next several years. From 1986 to 1987 he was the Marvin Bower Fellow and visiting associate professor at Harvard University. From 1989 to 1990 he was a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Timothy Bresnahan” is economist (Stanford University; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Timothy, Bresnahan and economist, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1953, 2017, 1975, 1978—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1953-01-04. For this dossier, Timothy, Bresnahan and economist is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “economist (Stanford University; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER))” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 31, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q41799775. VIAF identifies the subject as 264257073. The Library of Congress control number is n90684986. 1 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1953, 2017, 1975 and 1978.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Timothy Bresnahan”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Timothy Bresnahan primary sources, Timothy Bresnahan archive and Timothy research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Timothy Bresnahan”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Timothy Bresnahan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.