The widespread adoption of mobile banking in countries like Nigeria demonstrates a "leapfrogging" effect, which could potentially be replicated with transformative AI technology.

The fiscal response to the COVID-19 pandemic indicates that the government can act swiftly in a perceived emergency, such as a rapid 2-3% increase in unemployment.

In an experiment conducted by Alex Imas, participants valued a unique art print made by a person much more highly than an identical one made by AI.

Economist David Ricardo initially predicted the industrial revolution would benefit everyone, but later revised his view to forecast that automation would cause mass unemployment and political unrest.

Alex Imas is concerned about a potential cascade effect where firms lay off workers to signal they are adopting AI, even if the layoffs are detrimental to the company, simply to follow a prevailing na...

For AI-driven automation to cause negative economic growth, capital owners would need to have a hard-bounded demand for goods and also choose not to reinvest their surplus wealth.

According to a blog post by Andy Hall, a 2% increase in the unemployment rate is enough to cause a complete shift in the political landscape.

Alex Imas contrasts two potential economic models for AI: one like electricity, where downstream users like ComEd captured most benefits, and another like social media, where platforms captured most o...

Economist David Ricardo initially predicted the industrial revolution would be broadly beneficial but later reversed his position, forecasting widespread unemployment and political unrest due to autom...

A QGE paper found that phone operators displaced by automation between 1920 and 1940 were reabsorbed into the economy but at lower salaries and were often underemployed.

Alex Imas suggests a potential scenario where developing countries like Nigeria are left behind by the AI revolution if automation allows developed nations to produce commodities they previously impor...

The primary challenge of implementing Universal Basic Capital is the "targeting" problem of deciding which specific assets to include in citizens' portfolios.

A recent report from the Budget Lab at Yale University found little to no evidence of mass automation or unemployment caused by AI, even in highly exposed sectors like software engineering.

The automation of phone operators between 1920 and 1940 took 20 years to complete despite the technology being available, resulting in a gradual displacement of workers.

A paper by economist Andy Atkinson argues that if accounting standards are held constant over time, the labor share of the economy has not actually fallen.

The O*NET database, a U.S. government resource for tracking job tasks, is rarely updated and considered to be of low quality.

Alex Imas is concerned that a Universal Basic Income (UBI) would create a dangerous power dynamic where citizens' basic needs are dependent on elected officials.

The proposal to privatize Social Security in the U.S. involved giving every citizen a portfolio of stocks.

A blog post by Andrei Fredkin, Brian DeBerrian, and Andrew Koh found significant disagreement among economists' forecasts regarding the labor market.

In an experiment by Alex Imas, increasing the supply of an art print to 500 units caused the value of the human-made version to drop significantly, while the AI-made version's value was unchanged, sug...