David Autor
Economist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Signed the letter · Academia · United States
Economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Author of work on technology, trade, and labor markets, including 'Why Are There Still So Many Jobs? The History and Future of Workplace Automation', 'The Growth of Low-Skill Service Jobs and the Polarization of the US Labor Market', and, with co-authors, 'The China Syndrome: Local Labor Market Effects of Import Competition in the United States'. Signed the wemustactnow.ai open letter.
AI-written Documented facts only, from the sources below.
29 works in the co-authorship map · 27,143 citations across them
Sources
In the network
19 co-authors on the map · PageRank #8 of 400 · bridge #2 of 400 · 1 step from Erik Brynjolfsson · cluster: Labor markets and technology.
Measured on this map only, which grows out of the letter's signatories; what these numbers mean. See David Autor on the map
Documented positions
Will AI actually boost productivity and growth? leans agree
Sees AI as a potentially transformative tool — one that could extend expertise and raise productivity if pointed at worker-complementing uses.
Evidence
Will AI destroy more jobs than it creates? leans disagree
His research shows most of today's jobs are 'new work' created since 1940 — technology has historically created more work than it destroyed, and current AI effects on aggregate employment remain undetectable.
Evidence
Will AI widen inequality? it's complicated
Documented technology-driven polarization for decades, yet argues AI could rebuild middle-skill work by extending expertise — direction depends on how AI is deployed.
Evidence
Should governments act on AI now? leans agree
Argues for actively building pro-worker AI rather than leaving the direction of the technology to default incentives.
Evidence
- Building Pro-Worker Artificial Intelligence
- “Signed the wemustactnow.ai open letter urging policymakers to prepare for AI's economic impact” — source
How fast will the impact arrive? leans disagree
Co-authored vacancy evidence finds AI's aggregate labour-market effects not yet detectable.
Evidence
- “We find no discernible relationship between AI exposure and employment or wage growth at the occupation or industry level, however, implying that AI is currently substituting for humans in a subset of tasks but it is not yet having detectable aggregate labor market consequences.” — source
- “While visible at the establishment level, the aggregate impacts of AI-labor substitution on employment and wage growth in more exposed occupations and industries is currently too small to be detectable.” — source
Selected work
- Why Are There Still So Many Jobs? The History and Future of Workplace Automation
- The Growth of Low-Skill Service Jobs and the Polarization of the US Labor Market
- The China Syndrome: Local Labor Market Effects of Import Competition in the United States
Writes with
David Dorn (9), Daron Acemoglu (6), Gordon Hanson (6), Anna Salomons (4), Bryan Seegmiller (2), John Van Reenen (2), Lawrence Katz (2), Pascual Restrepo (2), Andrew Caplin (1), Andrew Scott (1), Daniel Martin (1), David J. Deming (1)
Co-authors on the map, by papers written together (12 of 19 shown).
Heard on
Podcast episodes that name David Autor in their title or description (1 of 1 shown).
- How China Shock 2.0 will reshape the world
ABC News Daily · 6 Sep 2026
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