David Autor took his first economics class at 29 years old. Now he’s one of the central academics studying the labor market. The M.I.T. economist and Steve dissect the impact of technology on labor, spar on A.I., and discuss why economists can sometimes be oblivious.

• SOURCES:
  • David Autor, professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

• RESOURCES:
  • "Does Automation Replace Experts or Augment Expertise? The Answer Is Yes," by David Autor (Joseph Schumpeter Lecture at the European Economic Association Annual Meeting, 2024).
  • “Applying AI to Rebuild Middle Class Jobs,” by David Autor (NBER Working Paper, 2024).
  • “New Frontiers: The Origins and Content of New Work, 1940–2018,” by David Autor, Caroline Chin, Anna Salomons, and Bryan Seegmiller (The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2024).
  • “Bottlenecks: Sectoral Imbalances and the US Productivity Slowdown,” by Daron Acemoglu, David Autor, and Christina Patterson (NBER Macroeconomics Annual, 2024).
  • "Good News: There’s a Labor Shortage," by David Autor (The New York Times, 2021).
  • "David Autor, the Academic Voice of the American Worker," (The Economist, 2019).
  • “Why Are There Still So Many Jobs? The History and Future of Workplace Automation,” by David Autor (The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2015).
  • “The Growth of Low-Skill Service Jobs and the Polarization of the US Labor Market,” by David Autor and David Dorn (The American Economic Review, 2013).
  • “The China Syndrome: Local Labor Market Effects of Import Competition in the United States,” by David Autor, David Dorn, and Gordon H. Hanson (The American Economic Review, 2013).

• EXTRAS:
  • "What Do People Do All Day?" by Freakonomics Radio (2024).
  • "Daron Acemoglu on Economics, Politics, and Power," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2024).
  • "You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Experiment," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2022).
  • "In Search of the Real Adam Smith," series by Freakonomics Radio (2022).
  • "Max Tegmark on Why Superhuman Artificial Intelligence Won’t be Our Slave," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).
  • "Automation," by Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (2019).