Issues

Home Vs Office: What Is the Best Hybrid Work Mix for Workers?

“Think about a typical office week and think about what we do. For a typical worker 50 percent of that is activities that are social and best done face-to-face.” — Nicholas Bloom, Professor of Economics , Stanford University

Nicholas Bloom
Source: Al Jazeera
October 15, 2021

Would Robot Umpires Have Prevented the Wilmer Flores Giants-Dodgers Controversy?

“If the robot can be more objective than an umpire,” he said Friday, “then I think that is good for baseball, especially if fans feel that the robot is objective. ” — James Bessen, Executive Director , Technology & Policy Research Initiative at Boston University’s Law School

James Bessen
Source: The Washington Post
October 15, 2021

The Great Pandemic Work-from-Home Experiment Was a Remarkable Success

“Probably the biggest surprise of the pandemic was that working from home worked so well.” — Nicholas Bloom, Professor of Economics, Stanford University

Nicholas Bloom
Source: The Washington Post
October 14, 2021

As Workers Age, Robots Take on More Jobs

“Aging is a huge part of the story” in robot adoption.” — Daron Acemoglu, Professor of Economics, MIT

Daron Acemoglu
Source: Reuters
September 16, 2021

Do we need humans for that job? Automation booms after COVID

“Many of the jobs that get automated were at the middle of the skill distribution. They don’t exist anymore, and the workers that used to perform them are now doing lower-skill jobs.” — Daron Acemoglu, Professor of Economics, MIT

Daron Acemoglu
Source: AP News
September 5, 2021

Why the 'Great Remote Work Experiment' May Have Been Flawed

“Without the unique pressure-cooker environment of the pandemic, there wouldn’t have been as many leaps in remote-work technological innovation.” — Nicholas Bloom, Professor of Economics, Stanford University

Nicholas Bloom
Source: BBC
August 11, 2021

Opinion: The AI We Should Fear Is Already Here

Alas, current AI technologies are not just far from general intelligence; they are not even that good at things that are second nature to humans — such as facial recognition, language comprehension and problem-solving — Daron Acemoglu, Professor of Economics, MIT

Daron Acemoglu
Source: The Washington Post
July 21, 2021

Pandemic Wave of Automation May Be Bad News for Workers

If we automated less, we would not actually have generated that much less output but we would have had a very different trajectory for inequality. — Daron Acemoglu, Professor of Economics, MIT

 

Daron Acemoglu
Source: The New York Times
July 3, 2021

These Startups Are Betting on a Remote-First World

"More work will likely take place remotely—22 percent of workdays in the future, compared to just 5 percent pre-pandemic." — Nicholas Bloom, Professor of Economics, Stanford University

Nicholas Bloom
Source: Wired
June 23, 2021

Stop Deporting Essential Workers Who Keep America Running

"Creating a path to citizenship for all undocumented people — as proposed in President Joe Biden’s U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 — would have the biggest impact, boosting gross domestic product by $1.7 trillion. This reform could fully fund the infrastructure bill.” — Giovanni Peri, Professor of Economics, University of California, Davis
Giovanni Peri
Source: The Seattle Times
June 22, 2021