MIT

Position Title/Short Description

Full Text of JOE Listing:

Position
One Post-Doctoral Associate position, available starting in 2025 for 2-3 years
Employer
MIT FutureTech (futuretech.mit.edu) at:

MIT Sloan School of Management’s Initiative on the Digital Economy (IDE) and
MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL)
Location
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Job Description
Dr. Neil Thompson, Director of MIT FutureTech, seeks to hire one Postdoctoral Associate for the following research projects:


(i) Understanding the Adoption and Diffusion of New Technologies
It is well-established that new technologies, such as robots, ICT, and AI, have the potential to significantly enhance productivity. However, the adoption of these technologies tends to be slow. For example, research shows that investment in robots and ICT is primarily driven by a small percentage of firms. Similarly, despite widespread expectations that AI will revolutionize production and work, its adoption appears slower than anticipated. In this project, we aim to understand the factors influencing the adoption of new technologies, such as AI, by firms, industries, and countries. This analysis may include examining technological constraints to adoption, production complementarities with other scarce factors, market power and factor prices, the trade-off between expected returns and costs of adopting technologies, and the role of social acceptance in enabling the integration of new technologies.

(ii) Future of Work and the Labor Market Effects of AI and ICT
What are the labor market implications of new technologies, such as AI and ICT? Do workers within firms benefit from IT improvements and the adoption of AI? If so, which workers specifically benefit, and which are adversely affected through slower wage growth or job displacement? How quickly will jobs be replaced or augmented by AI? Are workers (or individual tasks) complements or substitutes to AI and ICT? Furthermore, how does overall labor demand change in response to advancements in AI? We aim to address these and related questions by leveraging detailed firm-worker-level data from administrative sources (e.g., census data), publicly available task-level data (e.g., ONET), and self-collected surveys. By studying these dynamics, our goal is to gain a deeper understanding of the future of work in the context of the rise of new technologies.

(iii) The Impact of AI on Market Structure and Industry and Firm Performance
AI has been widely recognized as having the potential to revolutionize industries and transform firms’ production processes. However, there is still a significant gap in understanding how AI will impact firm and industry performance as well as market structures. In this project, we aim to develop novel measures of industry exposure to AI and utilize self-collected firm-level data on AI adoption to investigate how AI shapes market structures. Specifically, we seek to quantify the effects of AI on firm performance, productivity, and market power. Key questions include how AI influences firms' market shares and productivity and how these changes affect competition and aggregate productivity.

(iv) The Effect of AI on Science
AI has driven advancements in many scientific fields, such as drug discovery, material science, protein folding, or weather prediction. It is also well known that scientific progress is a key engine for economic growth. This project focuses on understanding the impact of AI on science and the resulting economic consequences. Key topics we aim to address include quantifying the impact of AI on scientific progress and economic growth, the extent to which AI will augment and/or change the R&D production function, and the implications of AI-driven R&D for researchers, firms, and policy.


In addition to researching these issues, the post-doc will be expected to become a team leader, supervising and mentoring younger students.

Qualifications
• PhD or equivalent in economics or related field
• Demonstrated expertise in computing / AI
• Interest in working in an interdisciplinary lab with computer scientists and engineers
• Strong data analysis skills, including statistical / econometric training
• Ideally: experience in working with U.S. census data
• Knowledge of relevant theoretical models
• Proficiency with a modern programming language, e.g., Python, R
• Solid English communication skills (verbal and written)
• Desire and skill (e.g. organizational abilities) to work in teams


The post-doc’s primary appointment would be at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and would have a secondary appointment at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab.
Salary
$71,000 per year, plus benefits.
To apply
Submit the following materials via the AEA platform:
(i) CV
(ii) Job market paper (or other sample of previous research)
(iii) Sample of code
(iv) Three letters of reference
(v) Cover letter discussing the applicant’s experience and which research projects would be of interest

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis starting immediately. Selected candidates will be interviewed via zoom.

About MIT FutureTech
Led by Dr. Neil Thompson, MIT FutureTech is an interdisciplinary group of computer scientists, engineers, and economists who study the foundations of progress in computing and Artificial Intelligence: the trends, implications, opportunities and risks.

Our work is supported by grants from Open Philanthropy, the National Science Foundation, Microsoft, Accenture, IBM, the MIT-Air Force AI accelerator, and the MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

About Dr. Neil Thompson, the Director of MIT FutureTech - futuretech.mit.edu/team/neil-thompson
Dr. Thompson is the Director of MIT FutureTech. Prior to starting FutureTech, Dr. Thompson was a professor of Innovation and Strategy at the MIT Sloan School of Management. His PhD is in Business & Public Policy from Berkeley. He also holds Master’s degrees in: Computer Science (Berkeley), Economics (London School of Economics), and Statistics (Berkeley). Prior to joining academia, Dr. Thompson was a management consultant with Bain & Company, and worked for the Canadian Government and the United Nations.
About the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy (IDE) - ide.mit.edu
The MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy is a team of internationally recognized thought leaders and researchers examining how people and businesses work, interact, and prosper in a time of rapid digital transformation. It is housed at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
About the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) - www.csail.mit.edu
CSAIL is one of the world’s top research centers for computer science and artificial intelligence (currently ranked #1). It has hosted 9 Turing awards winners (the “Nobel Prize of Computing”) and has pioneered many of the technologies that underpin computing.