AI and Technological Change

Blog

LSE Business Review:

ChatGPT or Zoom - which broke the career ladder?

Entry-level hiring has fallen sharply across white-collar work. An emerging explanation has been that generative AI is to blame. Drawing on their new study of hundreds of millions of hires and job adverts, Peter John Lam...Read more...

Blog

The Economics Show with Soumaya Keynes (podcast):

Will AI solve the productivity puzzle? With Nick Bloom

Productivity has been a problem for the past 15 years. In developed countries, weak demand, a lack of competition and a paucity of new ideas have all been blamed. Could AI finally reverse that trend? Soumaya speaks to St...Read more...

Blog

Project Syndicate:

Silicon, Not Software, Will Decide the AI Race

The AI race is no longer just about building better models. As competition shifts from scientific discovery to deployment, success increasingly depends on computing power, advanced semiconductors, physical infrastructure...Read more...

Blog

LSE Management:

How America out-deindustrialised Europe

Despite the prevailing narrative of Western deindustrialisation as one of a rigid Europe and a dynamic America, Richard Baldwin, Saul Estrin, and Bob Hancke argue that the comparison of the EU with the US turns this narr...Read more...

Blog

Polytechnique Insights:

Europe is falling behind, can it pick up the pace when it comes to innovation?

Philippe Aghion writes for Polytechnique Insights on how Europe must prepare its own AI strategy if it wishes to make up ground lost to the U.S. in terms of GDP per capita, productivity and disruptive innovations....Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Skills, not scale: GenAI and technology adoption

Do the determinants of technology adoption depend on technological architecture? Using administrative data on Turkish firms from 2021 to 2024, we compare the adoption of traditional and generative artificial intelligence...Read more...

Blog

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta:

How Much Are Firms Spending on AI (and What Will Happen to Headcounts)?

Nicholas Bloom and his co-authors investigate AI adoption in firms to understand how much companies are spending on AI and what the impact will be on the composition of their workforces....Read more...

Blog

Transform work:

Transform work with Raffaella Sadun, Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School (podcast)

Raffaella's work sits at the intersection of economics, leadership, and the future of work. Drawing on large-scale data and real-world field experiments inside major companies, she explores how hybrid work is reshaping l...Read more...

Blog

The Conversation UK:

Electric vehicles pass tipping point, breaking the link with oil prices

When the Strait of Hormuz first closed in March and oil hit US$120 a barrel, a very old question came back: is this finally the moment electric vehicles take off for good - or just another false start? EVs have been here...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

AI unbound: digital infrastructure, AI adoption, and firm performance

We study how digital infrastructure relaxes constraints on the diffusion and economic impact of artificial intelligence (AI). Using administrative data and a nationally representative enterprise survey from Turkey (2021?...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Spillovers from science

Quantifying spillovers from scientific knowledge to technology is important for understanding the social returns to science and for designing policy. A key challenge is how to credit scientific work with the value genera...Read more...

Blog

Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR):

Econ To Go | How remote work is redefining our lives

How has remote work changed the way we live and work? And what's here to stay? In the first episode of Econ To Go, Neale Mahoney sits down with Stanford economist Nick Bloom, one of the world's leading experts on work-...Read more...

Blog

LSE Business Review:

Automation is not hollowing out British factory jobs

Fears that new technology will wipe out jobs are as old as the factory floor. But new analysis by Aniket Baksy, Daniel Chandler and Peter John Lambert shows that rather than taking jobs away, automation in British factor...Read more...

CentrePiece article

Skills in the age of AI

A focus on wellbeing at work can help employees thrive....Read more...

Chapter

Labour markets and the future of work

in The London Consensus

New technologies are causing a restructuring of labour markets in many countries. While much has been written on how these technologies may destroy jobs, this chapter argues that they do not threaten the end of work but ...Read more...

Journal article

Labour Economics:

Human after all: occupations at the core of AI adoption

This paper investigates how firms? occupational structure shapes the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) using matched administrative data on French firms and relying on an instrumental variable Probit model. We ide...Read more...

External report

Strengthening Monitoring and Evaluation of Innovation Programs in the EU : Creating Ecosystems for Innovation in a Post-Coal Region Evidence from an RCT in the Czech Republic (English)

The Usti nad Labem and Karlovy Vary regions face persistent structural challenges as they transition away from coal-based industries. In response to these challenges, national and EU institutions have launched a coordina...Read more...

Blog

LSE IQ Podcast:

Is AI destroying the planet? (podcast)

Professor Nick Couldry, Dr Eugenie Dugoua, Ceara Carney | Artificial intelligence is transforming the world around us, offering increased productivity and promising to help tackle difficult problems like global warming. ...Read more...

Blog

LSE Politics and Policy:

AI for Good - impact through ethical technology

Artificial Intelligence is set to change our lives, but there are many doubts about whether this will be for the better. By looking at a case of non-surveillance application of AI used to help with crowd management, Tom ...Read more...

Blog

The ECB Blog:

AI can boost productivity - if firms use it

We constantly hear of exciting new ways AI tools can help to tackle economic problems and the productivity gains they bring. However, benefits can only materialize when firms actually use AI....Read more...

CentrePiece article

in brief... Do try this at work: the AI chatbot that can interview at scale

Large language models can conduct interviews at speed and at scale. Friedrich Geiecke and Xavier Jaravel present a new open source platform to support this innovative form of qualitative research....Read more...

Blog

Vox EU:

Technology spillovers, diffusion, and rivalry in firm networks

Quantifying technology adoption, spillovers, and diffusion across firms is crucial for understanding industry dynamics, and in turn countries' growth. This column combines firm-level input-output VAT data from Turkey wit...Read more...

Blog

Vox EU:

Redirecting AI: Privacy regulation and the future of artificial intelligence

Some artificial intelligence technologies are more data intensive than others. This column examines how data privacy regulation shaped the trajectory of AI innovation across countries, looking at patent applications from...Read more...

Blog

Vox EU:

Leveraging AI to navigate 'deglobalisation'

Trade wars, industrial policy, and myriad other supply chain disruptions have fast become the 'new normal'. Yet, given the highly opaque and complex nature of production processes, knowing how to navigate this rise of de...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

The role of human capital for AI adoption: evidence from French firms

We leverage a uniquely comprehensive combination of data sources to explore the enabling role of human capital in fostering the adoption of predictive AI systems in French firms. Using a causal estimation approach, we sh...Read more...

Blog

LSE Impact of Social Sciences:

AI can carry out qualitative research at unprecedented scale

The interactional skill of large language models enables them to carry out qualitative research interviews at speed and scale. Demonstrating the ability of these new techniques in a range of qualitative enquiries, Friedr...Read more...

Blog

LSE Business Review:

Britain needs nerds

Science, technological, mathematical and engineering (STEM) skills have been crucial to economic growth in the UK in the past, but how important are they to the adoption of the latest digital technologies such as AI? Mir...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Why do flexible work arrangements exist?

This paper studies flexible work arrangements, with a focus on zero-hours contracts (ZHCs). Leveraging a unique dataset from a large UK firm in the low-pay sector, it provides novel descriptives on ZHC workers, as well a...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Is distance from innovation a barrier to the adoption of artificial intelligence

Using our own data on artificial intelligence publications merged with Burning Glass vacancy data for 2007-2019, we investigate whether online vacancies for jobs requiring AI skills grow more slowly in US locations farth...Read more...

Blog

Project Syndicate:

China is exporting its AI surveillance state

Contrary to what many Western policymakers and commentators once hoped, recent analyses have added to the evidence that trade does not always foster democracy or liberalize regimes. Instead, China's greater integration w...Read more...

Blog

Harvard Business Review:

Designing a successful reskilling program

In this article, written as a follow up to the award-winning "Reskilling in the Age of AI", the authors report the results of a reskilling survey that they conducted with chief human resource officers from approximately ...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Transition to green technology along the supply chain

We analyze a model of green technological transition along a supply chain. In each layer, a good is produced with a dirty technology, or, if the required "electrification" innovation has occurred, with a clean technology...Read more...

Blog

LSE USAPP:

Book Review: Innovation for the Masses: How to Share the Benefits of the High-Tech Economy by Neil Lee

In 'Innovation for the Masses: How to Share the Benefits of the High-Tech Economy' Neil Lee proposes abandoning the Silicon Valley-style innovation hub, which concentrates its wealth, for alternative, more equitable mode...Read more...

Blog

Project Syndicate:

Should Workers Fear AI?

While hand-wringing about AI's implications for work and labour markets is understandable, economic history and current data make clear that the most common fears are largely overblown. Current applications are nowhere n...Read more...

Blog

LSE Business Review:

How the most recent AI wave affects jobs

With rapid progress in natural language processing and image generation, AI now affects creative occupations, which were previously considered safe from automation. Cecily Josten and Grace Lordan write that new approache...Read more...

Blog

VoxTalks Economics:

AI's impact on jobs (Podcast)

By automating non-routine tasks, AI may have a profound effect on the jobs we do, and even whether those jobs exist. How much should we fear, and how much should we welcome this change? In the second of our podcasts from...Read more...

CentrePiece article

Geopolitics and the electric vehicle revolution

Rising demand for electric vehicles (EVs) is changing the geopolitical landscape, as the world pivots away from fossil fuels towards the green minerals critical to the EV supply chain. Benjamin Jones, Viet Nguyen-Tien, R...Read more...

Blog

LSE Business Review:

What happens to people when machines replace them in the workplace?

New technologies are replacing workers in a growing range of occupations, causing loss of earnings and employment. However, these losses are smaller than those suffered by workers who experience mass layoffs. Per-Anders ...Read more...

Blog

VoxDev:

How the surveillance state is exported through trade in AI

Autocracies and weak democracies are more likely to import facial recognition AI from China, particularly in years when they experience domestic unrest, say Martin Beraja, Andrew Kao, David Yang and Noam Yuchtman....Read more...

Blog

LSE Business Review:

Christopher Pissarides: 'The more I study AI, the more optimistic I get about the labour market'

The rapid developments in artificial intelligence have been causing fears that many jobs will disappear. But Christopher Pissarides sees reason for optimism. In this Q&A with Maayan Arad, he says that the need to deal wi...Read more...

Blog

LSE iQ:

Is AI coming for our jobs? (podcast)

Maayan Arad speaks to experts about Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the courtroom, and what might happen if robots take over the roles of judges. And explore how journalism and other professional fields could be affected...Read more...

CentrePiece article

China at the technological frontier

The technology frontier that was dominated by the United States, Europe and Japan in the early 2000s is now much more polarised between the American and Chinese patent offices. Antonin Bergeaud and Cyril Verluise show th...Read more...

CentrePiece article

Adopt, adapt and improve

Fears about robots taking people?s jobs are overplayed, say Rui Costa and Yuanhang Yu. Their Economy 2030 Inquiry briefing shows the real fear to overcome should be Britain?s lack of productivity-enhancing robots, softwa...Read more...

Chapter

Life cycle assessment of recycling systems

in Roadmap for a sustainable circular economy in lithium-ion and future battery technologies

The market dynamics, and their impact on a future circular economy for lithium-ion batteries (LIB), are presented in this roadmap, with safety as an integral consideration throughout the life cycle. At the point of end-o...Read more...

Journal article

American Economic Review :

Technology gaps, trade and income

This paper quantifies the contribution of technology gaps to international income inequality. I develop an endogenous growth model where cross-country differences in R&D efficiency and cross-industry differences in innov...Read more...

Blog

Vox EU:

Robot adoption, worker-firm sorting, and wage inequality: Evidence from administrative panel data

Technological progress has contributed to rising wage inequality in recent decades. Automation and digitalisation increasingly require workers with specialised knowledge for specific tasks, say Ester Faia, Gianmarco Otta...Read more...

Blog

ProMarket:

A New Framework for Better Industrial Policies

Chiara Criscuolo and Guy Lalanne provide a new, conceptual framework for better industrial policy, considering topical areas such as clean energy, Covid-19, and performance of key business sectors....Read more...

Blog

LSE Business Review:

What is the contribution of China to pushing the technological frontier?

China's technological strength has been increasing since the late 2000s, accounting for a significant share of patents. Antonin Bergeaud and Cyril Verluise show that while China's share of patents is increasing in quanti...Read more...

Blog

The ECB Blog:

Can Europe be a green innovation leader?

Europe is punching below its weight in the climate-technology competition. The continent needs to facilitate risk capital markets and to invest more in research and development. This is the 4th post in a series of climat...Read more...

Blog

LSE Business Review:

How should we decide when to use artificial intelligence in decision-making?

Should organisations adopt artificial intelligence in their decision-making processes? Grace Lordan, Paris Will, and Dario Krpan write that AI-based methods lead to more efficient hiring decisions, increasing diversity o...Read more...

Journal article

The World Economy:

The electric vehicle revolution: critical material supply chains, trade and development

The emergence of a mass market for electric vehicles (EVs) offers development opportunities for countries that have abundant resources of cobalt, nickel, lithium, copper, aluminium and manganese. Not surprisingly, develo...Read more...

Journal article

Applied Energy:

Optimising the geospatial configuration of a future lithium-ion battery recycling industry in the transition to electric vehicles and a circular economy

Rapid electrification of the transport system will generate substantial volumes of Lithium-ion-battery (LiB) waste as batteries reach their end-of-life. Much attention focuses on the recycling processes, neglecting a bro...Read more...

Blog

Banque de France:

Technological change and outsourcing: an illustration through broadband Internet access in France

The work organisation in companies is increasingly "fragmented" due to the growing use of outsourcing of activities that are not considered as "core business". Outsourcing is the process whereby a company separates itsel...Read more...

Book

Restarting the future
How to fix the intangible economy

The past two decades have witnessed sluggish economic growth, mounting inequality, dysfunctional competition, and a host of other ills that have left people wondering what has happened to the future they were promised. R...Read more...

Blog

VoxEU:

The environmental burden of the international job market for economists

Each year, the 'international job market for economists' involves over 1,000 junior candidates and several hundred recruiters from all over the world meeting for short pre-screening interviews at annual congresses in Eur...Read more...

Blog

VoxTalks Economics:

AI: software for autocrats? (podcast)

The Chinese government isn't just a world leader in the use of AI for facial recognition, its orders are funding innovation in its domestic industry too. But what's good news for entrepreneurs may be bad news for politic...Read more...

Blog

VoxEU:

Autocratic AI dystopias: from science fiction to social science fact

The growth of artificial intelligence technology brings the potential of a 'fourth industrial revolution', but also poses challenges for democratic institutions. This column analyses the mutually reinforcing relationship...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

AI-tocracy

Can frontier innovation be sustained under autocracy? We argue that innovation and autocracy can be mutually reinforcing when: (i) the new technology bolsters the autocrat's power; and (ii) the autocrat's demand for the ...Read more...

CEP report

Seizing sustainable growth opportunities from carbon capture, usage and storage in the UK

Seizing opportunities from the CCUS value chain can be part of an economy-wide, net-zero-aligned growth path in the UK. The UK has responded to the climate emergency facing the world with an economy-wide target to reach...Read more...

CentrePiece article

Going for growth that's sustainable and equitable

In the second anniversary lecture marking 30 years since CEP began, former director John Van Reenen focused on productivity, an issue that has been at the heart of the Centre's work for three decades. He sets out how tec...Read more...

Blog

Knowledge:

Rethinking capitalism: the power of creative destruction

Philippe Aghion and Isabelle Laporte explain how, with the proper safeguards, creative destruction - the process by which the new replaces the old - remains the way to greater economic growth and prosperity....Read more...

Blog

VoxEU:

OPENing up military innovation: The causal effects of 'bottom up' reforms to US defence research

In recent decades, US defence R&D seems to have lost its lustre. To combat the declining innovation, in 2018 the US Air Force reformed its contracting procedures to allow applicants more freedom to suggest projects with ...Read more...

Blog

VoxEU:

Barriers to net-zero: How firms can make or break the green transition

Many countries are striving for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, requiring massive investments over the next decades. But many companies, especially smaller ones, will not be able or willing to invest in cleaner techno...Read more...

Blog

LSE Business Review:

Technology can benefit a few superstar workers, at the expense of everyone else

The rollout of television provides a natural experiment, creating an opportunity to isolate the impact of a technical disruption on the labour market, writes Felix Koenig....Read more...

CentrePiece article

When machines replace people: individual consequences of occupational decline

What happens to people's careers when demand for their occupations declines, often as a result of technological change? Guy Michaels and colleagues' analysis of detailed occupational data on Swedish workers over several ...Read more...

Journal article

American Economic Review:

Innovation and institutional ownership

We find that greater institutional ownership is associated with more innovation. To explore the mechanism, we contrast the "lazy manager" hypothesis with a model where institutional owners increase innovation incentives ...Read more...

Journal article

The Quarterly Journal of Economics:

Does management matter? Evidence from India

A long-standing question is whether differences in management practices across firms can explain differences in productivity, especially in developing countries where these spreads appear particularly large. To investiga...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Does Management Matter? Evidence from India

A long-standing question in social science is to what extent differences in management cause differences in firm performance. To investigate this we ran a management field experiment on large Indian textile firms. We pro...Read more...

Journal article

The Quarterly Journal of Economics:

Technology and changes in skill structure: evidence from seven OECD countries

This paper compares the changing skill structure of wage bills and employment in the United States with six other OECD countries (Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, Sweden, and the United Kingdom). We investigate whether a...Read more...

Journal article

The Quarterly Journal of Economics:

The creation and capture of rents: wages and innovation in a panel of UK companies

This paper examines the impact of technological innovation on wages using a panel of British firms. A head-count measure of major innovations between 1945 and 1983 is combined with share price and accounting information....Read more...