Recent technological developments and past technology transitions suggest that the worldcould be on the verge of a profound shift in transportation technology. The return of the electriccar and its adoption, like that of the motor vehicle in place of horses in early 20th century,could cut oil...

This paper draws on existing empirical literature and an original theoretical model to argue that globalization and skill supply affect the extent to which technology adoption in developing countries favors skilled workers. Developing countries are experiencing technical change that is...

This paper examines the evolving structure and competition dynamics of the rapidly growing market for foundation models, with a focus on large language models (LLMs). We describe the technological characteristics that shape the AI industry and have given rise to fierce competition among the...

We model how an increase in Work-from-Home (WFH) productivity differentially affects workers using a framework in which some workers cannot work offsite, some are hybrid, and some are completely remote. The improvement in WFH productivity increases housing demand and thus housing prices since...

An influential explanation for global productivity differences is that frontier technologies are adapted to the high-income countries that develop them and "inappropriate" elsewhere. We study this hypothesis in agriculture using data on novel plant varieties, patents, output, and the global...

Variation in technology adoption is a key driver of differences in productivity. Previous studies sought to explain variations in technology adoption by heterogeneity in profitability, costs of adoption, or other factors. Less is known about how adoption is affected by bias in the perceived...

Do large firms produce more valuable inventions, and if so, why? After confirming that large firms indeed produce more valuable inventions, we consider two possible sources: a superior ability to invent, or a superior ability to extract value from their inventions. We develop a simple model that...

Using individual level data on task composition at work for 30 advanced and emerging economies, we find that women, on average, perform more routine tasks than men?tasks that are more prone to automation. To quantify the impact on jobs, we relate data on task composition at work to occupation...

This paper reviews the main motivations and arguments of my work on comparative development, colonialism and institutional change, which was often carried out jointly with James Robinson and Simon Johnson. I then provide a simple framework to organize these ideas and connect them with my...

We study the post-World War II "Golden Age" of American corporate research from 1945 to 1980, using multiple indicators of corporate research activity. We use an ensemble learning approach to classify firms as either Science Leaders, Absorbers or Followers. Our analysis reveals that only a small...