@davidautor.bsky.social
Co-director @davidautor.bsky.social explains findings from his new research with Neil Thompson. Automation (including AI) can make a job more or less "expert," raising or lowering wages, depending on the nature of the tasks it removes and/or creates.
Watch the full clip: youtu.be/1lOOKvufS4w
"One of the great challenges of our era is to figure out how to create tools, AIs, that support people using their expertise better and learning faster."
Hear more from @davidautor.bsky.social on the Possible podcast with @reidhoffman.bsky.social: youtu.be/MGKUTVyqJlI
The MIT Shaping the Future of Work Initiative is now the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Center on Inequality and Shaping the Future of Work. Hear from our co-directors @dacemoglumit.bsky.social, @davidautor.bsky.social, and @simonhrjohnson.bsky.social about our mission and goals for the years ahead.
01.07.2025 19:11 — 👍 7 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 1
(1/4) When some job tasks are automated, do the tasks that remain become more or less valuable? 🧵👇
In a new working paper, @davidautor.bsky.social and Neil Thompson argue the answer depends on how much expertise is required for the tasks still done by humans.
A recent article from @stanfordhai.bsky.social highlights insights from co-director @davidautor.bsky.social on how automation affects jobs — and why focusing solely on a job's exposure to automation misses the point.
hai.stanford.edu/news/assessi...
We asked co-director @davidautor.bsky.social if he thinks US tariffs and trade policy signal the end of the globalization era.
He explains: "I don't think globalization is over, but I think the US leadership of globalization may be over."
David Autor smiling with the Social Science Bites logo on the bottom
“I feel like if we use AI well, it's actually complementary to the knowledge that many people have.”
Economist @davidautor.bsky.social of @mitshapingwork.bsky.social discusses changes to the labor market on a new Social Science Bites episode.
Listen now: www.socialsciencespace.com/2025/06/davi...
I'm delighted to announce this next chapter for @mitshapingwork.bsky.social. Support from the Stone Foundation will enable us — and many others — to focus our efforts towards shaping a labor market that offers opportunity, mobility and economic security to a far broader set of people.
13.05.2025 21:25 — 👍 7 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Co-director @davidautor.bsky.social explains key findings from his recent NBER working paper, co-authored with our research affiliate @profdaviddorn.bsky.social, Gordon Hanson, Maggie Jones, and Bradley Setzler.
Read the paper: shapingwork.mit.edu/research/pla...
#EconSky
Co-director @davidautor.bsky.social, whose landmark research defined the "China Shock," argues that the US should invest in its own capacity to build cutting-edge technologies. However, blanket tariffs will not achieve this goal.
Watch the full clip: youtu.be/tjdiEQdSmPQ
#EconSky
I'm honored that MIT Press selected my book with Elisabeth Reynolds and David Mindell for this award.
11.04.2025 16:28 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0What makes work valuable?
Co-director @davidautor.bsky.social explains how expertise makes certain types of labor more valuable than others — but only if that expertise is both useful and scarce.
"Expertise is intrinsically a moving target ... It changes over time."
Co-director @davidautor.bsky.social explains key insights from his recent QJE paper, which finds that 60% of the work we do today didn't exist in 1940.
Read New Frontiers: The Origins and Content of New Work, 1940-2018: shapingwork.mit.edu/research/new...
Full clip: youtu.be/A3-nEP1oyeA
#EconSky
Two-page spread of the article "What keeps us busy in an automated age?", with illustrations of David Autor on the left, and an illustration of the "elevation of high skill" and the "suppressing of the middle skill" in relation to automation.
Second two-page spread of the article "What keeps us busy in an automated age?". On the right, an illustration of "the handoff problem", whereby automation can degrade expertise.
What keeps us busy in an automated age?
Simple: "We create new variety and new depth to what we do," says @davidautor.bsky.social of @mitshapingwork.bsky.social.
In this article, we cover his analyses of how AI could commodity expertise, or make a little expertise go further.
#scicomm #genai
Our co-director @davidautor.bsky.social explains how AI, when implemented as a decision support tool, can potentially revitalize middle-skill work by extending the value of expertise to workers with less formal education.
Watch the video: youtu.be/66fYniAyCk0
