Existing learning models attribute failures to learn to a lack of data. We model a different barrier. Given the large number of dimensions one could focus on when using a technology, people may fail to learn because they failed to notice important features of the data they possess. We conduct a...

We analyze investment decisions when information is costly, with and without delegation to an agent. We use a rational-inattention model and compare it with a canonical signal-extraction model. We identify three "investment conditions". In "sour" conditions, no information is acquired and no...

Steve Jobs described computers as "bicycles for the mind," a tool that allowed people to dramatically leverage their capabilities. This paper presents a formal model of cognitive tools and technologies that enhance mental capabilities. We consider agents engaged in iterative task improvement,...

Generative AI (GenAI) and Large Language Models (LLMs) are moving into domains once seen as uniquely human: reasoning, synthesis, abstraction, and rhetoric. Addressed to labor economists and informed readers, this paper clarifies what is truly new about LLMs, what is not, and why it matters....

Generative AI (GenAI) and Large Language Models (LLMs) are moving into domains once seen as uniquely human—reasoning, synthesis, abstraction, and rhetoric. Addressed to labor economists and informed readers, this paper clarifies what is truly new about LLMs, what is not, and why it matters....

We examine returns to entrepreneurship using a standard measure of welfare, the percapita consumption expenditure. The analysis, using quantile regressions, reveals the existence of a welfare hierarchy in occupations. The results suggest that, across the welfare distribution, entrepreneurs who...

Cooperation can benefit and hurt firms at the same time. An important question then is: when is it better to cooperate. And how can an appropriate partner be selected? In this paper we present a model of inter-firm cooperation driven by cognitive distance, appropriability conditions and external...

This paper studies implications of uncertainty about the arrival date of a competitive CO2 backstop technology for the design of cost-effective CO2 emission trading schemes. For this purpose, we develop a dynamic general equilibrium model that captures empirical links between CO2 emissions...

We present a model in which price dispersion allows long run increasing returns to scale to emerge from a competitive short run. The model hinges upon turnover in the productive technology-leading firm, price dispersion resultant of Stigler's logic of rational search and limited excludability of...

This paper studies the asset pricing implications of technology spillover, an important externality in innovation. While technology spillover enables firms to produce a variety of products that better satisfy their customers' love for variety, such benefits are procyclical, and investors...