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The Economics of Artificial Intelligence: An Agenda
Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) highlight the potential of this technology to affect productivity, growth, inequality, market power, innovation, and employment. This volume seeks to set the agenda for economic research on the impact of AI. It covers four broad AI as a general purpose technology; the relationships between AI, growth, jobs, and inequality; regulatory responses to changes brought on by AI; and the effects of AI on the way economic research is conducted. It explores the economic influence of machine learning, the branch of computational statistics that has driven much of the recent excitement around AI, as well as the economic impact of robotics and automation and the potential economic consequences of a still-hypothetical artificial general intelligence. The volume provides frameworks for understanding the economic impact of AI and identifies a number of open research questions.
Daron Acemoglu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Philippe Aghion, Collège de France
Ajay Agrawal, University of Toronto
Susan Athey, Stanford University
James Bessen, Boston University School of Law
Erik Brynjolfsson, MIT Sloan School of Management
Colin F. Camerer, California Institute of Technology
Judith Chevalier, Yale School of Management
Iain M. Cockburn, Boston University
Tyler Cowen, George Mason University
Jason Furman, Harvard Kennedy School
Patrick Francois, University of British Columbia
Alberto Galasso, University of Toronto
Joshua Gans, University of Toronto
Avi Goldfarb, University of Toronto
Austan Goolsbee, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Rebecca Henderson, Harvard Business School
Ginger Zhe Jin, University of Maryland
Benjamin F. Jones, Northwestern University
Charles I. Jones, Stanford University
Daniel Kahneman, Princeton University
Anton Korinek, Johns Hopkins University
Mara Lederman, University of Toronto
Hong Luo, Harvard Business School
John McHale, National University of Ireland
Paul R. Milgrom, Stanford University
Matthew Mitchell, University of Toronto
Alexander Oettl, Georgia Institute of Technology
Andrea Prat, Columbia Business School
Manav Raj, New York University
Pascual Restrepo, Boston University
Daniel Rock, MIT Sloan School of Management
Jeffrey D. Sachs, Columbia University
Robert Seamans, New York University
Scott Stern, MIT Sloan School of Management
Betsey Stevenson, University of Michigan
Joseph E. Stiglitz. Columbia University
Chad Syverson, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Matt Taddy, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Steven Tadelis, University of California, Berkeley
Manuel Trajtenberg, Tel Aviv University
Daniel Trefler, University of Toronto
Catherine Tucker, MIT Sloan School of Management
Hal Varian, University of California, Berkeley
Daron Acemoglu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Philippe Aghion, Collège de France
Ajay Agrawal, University of Toronto
Susan Athey, Stanford University
James Bessen, Boston University School of Law
Erik Brynjolfsson, MIT Sloan School of Management
Colin F. Camerer, California Institute of Technology
Judith Chevalier, Yale School of Management
Iain M. Cockburn, Boston University
Tyler Cowen, George Mason University
Jason Furman, Harvard Kennedy School
Patrick Francois, University of British Columbia
Alberto Galasso, University of Toronto
Joshua Gans, University of Toronto
Avi Goldfarb, University of Toronto
Austan Goolsbee, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Rebecca Henderson, Harvard Business School
Ginger Zhe Jin, University of Maryland
Benjamin F. Jones, Northwestern University
Charles I. Jones, Stanford University
Daniel Kahneman, Princeton University
Anton Korinek, Johns Hopkins University
Mara Lederman, University of Toronto
Hong Luo, Harvard Business School
John McHale, National University of Ireland
Paul R. Milgrom, Stanford University
Matthew Mitchell, University of Toronto
Alexander Oettl, Georgia Institute of Technology
Andrea Prat, Columbia Business School
Manav Raj, New York University
Pascual Restrepo, Boston University
Daniel Rock, MIT Sloan School of Management
Jeffrey D. Sachs, Columbia University
Robert Seamans, New York University
Scott Stern, MIT Sloan School of Management
Betsey Stevenson, University of Michigan
Joseph E. Stiglitz. Columbia University
Chad Syverson, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Matt Taddy, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Steven Tadelis, University of California, Berkeley
Manuel Trajtenberg, Tel Aviv University
Daniel Trefler, University of Toronto
Catherine Tucker, MIT Sloan School of Management
Hal Varian, University of California, Berkeley
648 pages, Hardcover
Published May 22, 2019
15 people are currently reading
124 people want to read
About the author
Ajay Agrawal
11 books746 followersAjay Agrawal is a professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management as the Geoffrey Taber Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation as well as the Professor of Strategic Management. Agrawal co-founded NEXT Canada, previously The Next 36 in 2010.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 19, 2025
It's a book that promises a lot but delivers a few, it is not up to my expectations. The book is uneven, for example, Chapter 14 by Anton Korinek and Joseph E. Stiglitz has excellent points but very low points also, what that speculation about AI vs Humans in Malthus context, just by unplugging the AI the competition ends. Tyler Cowen's Chapter 15 is completely absurd and also discriminatory in proclaiming that women should take care of their elderly parents, that is outrageous. If AI systems are not good with rule-based systems…why does natural(biological) intelligence need it?
Many of the book's conclusions could have to do with the new wave of HR layoffs, lack of commitment of companies to employees, etc. the whole paradigm shift that Jack Welch created. It’s easy to explain when they shift from economic growth to financial growth when voracious and predatory capitalism took over from equality and distribution. That's the simple explanation. Workers started to lose portions of their income which goes to the Top 1% which is unproductive.
Book Cities comments:
[] there is a shortage of people with the skills to scale up companies ---> That's a fucking lie, there are a lot of preconceptions, impediments for people to access education, and a lot of discrimination.
Bessen suggests that new computer technology is associated with employment declines in manufacturing, where demand has generally been met, but is correlated with employment growth in less saturated, nonmanufacturing industries. Similarly, Mandel (2017), studying the effects of e-commerce, finds that job losses at brick-and-mortar department stores were more than made up for by new opportunities at fulfillment and call centers.----> Lower paid and less qualified jobs.
The amazing success of online marketplaces was not fully anticipated,
primarily because of the hazards of anonymous trade and asymmetric information. Namely, how can strangers who have never transacted with one another, and who may be thousands of miles apart, be willing to trust each other? ---> That has been happening since at least the catalog system started, are you stupid Paul R. Milgrom and Steven Tadelis?
Many of the book's conclusions could have to do with the new wave of HR layoffs, lack of commitment of companies to employees, etc. the whole paradigm shift that Jack Welch created. It’s easy to explain when they shift from economic growth to financial growth when voracious and predatory capitalism took over from equality and distribution. That's the simple explanation. Workers started to lose portions of their income which goes to the Top 1% which is unproductive.
Book Cities comments:
[] there is a shortage of people with the skills to scale up companies ---> That's a fucking lie, there are a lot of preconceptions, impediments for people to access education, and a lot of discrimination.
Bessen suggests that new computer technology is associated with employment declines in manufacturing, where demand has generally been met, but is correlated with employment growth in less saturated, nonmanufacturing industries. Similarly, Mandel (2017), studying the effects of e-commerce, finds that job losses at brick-and-mortar department stores were more than made up for by new opportunities at fulfillment and call centers.----> Lower paid and less qualified jobs.
The amazing success of online marketplaces was not fully anticipated,
primarily because of the hazards of anonymous trade and asymmetric information. Namely, how can strangers who have never transacted with one another, and who may be thousands of miles apart, be willing to trust each other? ---> That has been happening since at least the catalog system started, are you stupid Paul R. Milgrom and Steven Tadelis?
October 11, 2022
It was really an eye-opener for me on how knowledge economy works and how AI is going to disrupt that one. It was novel to think that educational institutions are actually industries that supply to and are part of a bigger scheme of things.
September 8, 2022
It has interesting facts, as a theory book it's worthy, but not for programming purposes. By the way, as I said it shows interesting studies and thoughts.
September 27, 2025
The book is a set of dozens of articles, so it is quite uneven. Many authors are still preaching the gospel of Milton Friedman (“profit is the only responsibility of a company) and salivate over automation by AI. Still there are some interesting ideas, e.g. the attempt to build an economic model of “AI Singularity”, criticism of UBI, etc.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews