Erik Brynjolfsson

Erik Brynjolfsson is the Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Professor and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI), and Director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab. He also is the Ralph Landau Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), Professor by Courtesy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Stanford Department of Economics, and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).

His research examines the effects of information technologies on business strategy, productivity and performance, digital commerce, and intangible assets. A best-selling author, he writes and speaks to global audiences about these topics.

Recent Research

Erik Brynjolfsson, Avinash Collis, W Erwin Diewert, Felix Eggers, Kevin J Fox, “GDP-B: Accounting for the Value of New and Free Goods”, American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, October 2025
Erik Brynjolfsson, Anton Korinek, Ajay K Agrawal, “A Research Agenda for the Economics of Transformative AI”, NBER Working Paper, September 2025
Matthew O Jackson, Qiaozhu Me, Stephanie W Wang, Yutong Xie, Walter Yuan, Seth Benzell, Erik Brynjolfsson, Colin F Camerer, James Evans, Brian Jabarian, Jon Kleinberg, Juanjuan Meng, Sendhil Mullainathan, Asuman Ozdaglar, Thomas Pfeiffer, Moshe Tennenholtz, Robb Willer, Diyi Yang, Teng Ye, “AI Behavioral Science”, arXiv:2509.13323, August 2025
Erik Brynjolfsson, Bharat Chandar, Ruyu Chen, “Canaries in the Coal Mine? Six Facts About the Recent Employment Effects of Artificial Intelligence”, Stanford Digital Economy Working Paper, August 2025
Erik Brynjolfsson, Alex'Sandy' Pentland, Nathaniel Persily, Condoleezza Rice, Angela Aristidou, “Artificial Intelligence, Democracy and Society”, UCLA Journal of Law and Technology, August 2025
Sophia Kazinnik, Erik Brynjolfsson, “AI and the Fed”, NBER Working Paper, July 2025
Yijia Shao, Humishka Zope, Yucheng Jiang, Jiaxin Pei, David Nguyen, Erik Brynjolfsson, Diyi Yang, “Future of Work with AI Agents: Auditing Automation and Augmentation Potential across the U.S. Workforce”, arXiv preprint, June 2025
Erik Brynjolfsson, Catherine Buffington, Nathan Goldschlag, J Frank Li, Javier Miranda, Robert Seamans, “Robot Hubs and the Use of Robotics in US Manufacturing Establishments”, AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2025
Erik Brynjolfsson, Danielle Li, Lindsey Raymond, “Generative AI at Work”, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 2025
Nestor Maslej, Loredana Fattorini, Raymond Perrault, Yolanda Gil, Vanessa Parli, Njenga Kariuki, Emily Capstick, Anka Reuel, Erik Brynjolfsson, John Etchemendy, Katrina Ligett, Terah Lyons, James Manyika, Juan Carlos Niebles, Yoav Shoham, Russell Wald, Tobi Walsh, Armin Hamrah, Lapo Santarlasci, Julia Betts Lotufo, Alexandra Rome, Andrew Shi, Sukrut Oak, “Artificial Intelligence Index Report 2025”, arXiv preprint, April 2025
Jacy Reese Anthis, Ryan Liu, Sean M Richardson, Austin C Kozlowski, Bernard Koch, James Evans, Erik Brynjolfsson, Michael Bernstein, “LLM Social Simulations Are a Promising Research Method”, arXiv preprint, April 2025
Jacy Reese Anthis, Ryan Liu, Sean M Richardson, Austin C Kozlowski, Bernard Koch, James Evans, Erik Brynjolfsson, Michael Bernstein, “LLM Social Simulations Are a Promising Research Method”, arXiv e-prints, April 2025
Kristina McElheran, Mu-Jeung Yang, Zachary Kroff, Erik Brynjolfsson, “The Rise of Industrial AI in America: Microfoundations of the Productivity J-curve(s)”, Center for Economic Studies, US Census Bureau Working Papers, March 2025
Sarah H Bana, Erik Brynjolfsson, Wang Jin, Sebastian Steffen, Xiupeng Wang, “Human Capital Acquisition in Response to Data Breaches”, MIS Quarterly, March 2025
Erik Brynjolfsson, Long Chen, Xijie Gao, “Gains from Product Variety: Evidence from a Large Digital Platform”, INFORMS, February 2025
Avinash Collis, Felix Eggers, Erik Brynjolfsson, “LLM Time Machines: Valuing Digital Goods Over Time”, SSRN, December 2024
Kristina McElheran, Mu-Jeung Yang, Erik Brynjolfsson, Zachary Kroff, “The Rise of Industrial AI in America: Microfoundations of the Productivity J-curve(s)”, SSRN, November 2024
Erik Brynjolfsson, Sandy Pentland, Nathaniel Persily, Condoleezza Rice, Angela Aristidou, “Introduction: Artificial Intelligence and Democracy”, Stanford Digital Economy Lab, September 2024
Erik Brynjolfsson, Avinash Collis, Asad Liaqat, Daley Kutzman, Haritz Garro, Daniel Deisenroth, Nils Wernerfelt, “The Consumer Welfare Effects of Online Ads: Evidence from a 9-Year Experiment”, NBER, August 2024
Chiara Farronato, Andrey Fradkin, Bradley J Larsen, Erik Brynjolfsson, “Consumer Protection in an Online World: An Analysis of Occupational Licensing”, AEJ: Applied Economics, July 2024
Wajeeha Ahmad, Ananya Sen, Charles Eesley, Erik Brynjolfsson, “Companies inadvertently fund online misinformation despite consumer backlash”, June 2024
Sinan Aral, Erik Brynjolfsson, Chris Gu, DJ Wu, “Understanding the Returns from Integrated Enterprise Systems: The Impacts of Agile and Phased Implementation Strategies”, June 2024
Nestor Maslej, Loredana Fattorini, Raymond Perrault, Vanessa Parli, Anka Reuel, Erik Brynjolfsson, John Etchemendy, Katrina Ligett, Terah Lyons, James Manyika, Juan Carlos Niebles, Yoav Shoham, Russell Wald, Jack Clark, “Artificial intelligence index report 2024 ”, May 2024
Erik Brynjolfsson, Wang Jin, Sebastian Steffen, “Do IT Capabilities Still Drive Productivity and Innovation in the Digital Age?”, SSRN 4765508, March 2024
Wajeeha Ahmad, Ananya Sen, Chuck Eesley and Erik Brynjolfsson, “The Role of Advertisers and Platforms in Monetizing Misinformation: Descriptive and Experimental Evidence”, NBER WP 32187, March 2024
Kristina McElheran, J. Frank Li, Erik Brynjolfsson, Zachary Kroff, Emin Dinlersoz, Lucia Foster, and Nikolas Zolas, “AI adoption in America: Who, what, and where”, Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, January 2024
Sagit Bar-Gill, Erik Brynjolfsson, and Nir Hak, “Helping Small Businesses Become More Data-Driven: A Field Experiment on eBay”, Management Science, January 2024
Erik Brynjolfsson, Gabriel Unger, “The Macroeconomics of Artificial Intelligence”, IMF, December 2023
Erik Brynjolfsson, Robert M. Wachter, “Will Generative Artificial Intelligence Deliver on Its Promise in Health Care?”, JAMA, November 2023
Martin Neil Baily, Erik Brynjolfsson, and Anton Korinek, “Machines of mind: The case for an AI-powered productivity boom” Brookings, May 2023
Erik Brynjolfsson, Danielle Li, Lindsey Raymond, “Generative AI at Work” NBER WP 31161, April 2023
Nestor Maslej, Loredana Fattorini, Erik Brynjolfsson, John Etchemendy, Katrina Ligett, Terah Lyons, James Manyika, Helen Ngo, Juan Carlos Niebles, Vanessa Parli, Yoav Shoham, Russell Wald, Jack Clark, and Raymond Perrault, “The AI Index 2023 Annual Report,” AI Index Steering Committee, Institute for Human-Centered AI, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, April 2023
Sagit Bar-Gill, Erik Brynjolfsson & Nir Hak, “Helping Small Businesses become more Data-Driven: A Field Experiment on eBay” NBER WP 31089, March 2023
Erik Brynjolfsson, Cathy Buffington, Nathan Goldschlag, J. Frank Li, Javier Miranda & Robert Seamans, “The Characteristics and Geographic Distribution of Robot Hubs in U.S. Manufacturing Establishments” NBER WP 31062, March 2023
Erik Brynjolfsson, Long Chen & Xijie Gao, “Gains from Product Variety: Evidence from a Large Digital Platform” NBER WP 30802, December 2022
Brynjolfsson, Erik, “The Turing Trap: The Promise & Peril of Human-Like Artificial Intelligence,” Dædalus, Spring, 2022.
Erik Brynjolfsson, Karthik Rajkumar, Guillaume Saint-Jacques, Iavor Bojinov, Sinan Aral, “A causal test of the strength of weak ties,” September 2022.
Daniel Zhang, Nestor Maslej, Erik Brynjolfsson, John Etchemendy, Terah Lyons, James Manyika, Helen Ngo, Juan Carlos Niebles, Michael Sellitto, Ellie Sakhaee, Yoav Shoham, Jack Clark, Raymond Perrault, “The AI Index 2022 Annual Report,” AI Index Steering Committee, Institute for Human-Centered AI, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, May 2022
Brynjolfsson, Erik, Liu, Meng, Westerman, George, “Do Computers Reduce the Value of Worker Persistence?,” April 2022.
Erik Brynjolfsson, John Horton, Christos A. Makridis, Alex Mas, Adam Ozimek, Daniel Rock, and Hong-Yi TuYe (2022) “How Many Americans Work Remotely?,” Stanford Digital Economy Lab Working Paper, March 22.
Benzell, Seth and Brynjolfsson, Erik, “The Innovation-Complexity Trade-off: How Bottlenecks Create Superstars and Constrain Growth,” January 2022.
Benzell, Seth, Brynjolfsson, Erik, and Saint-Jacques, Guillaume, “Digital Abundance Meets Scarce Architects: Implications for Wages, Interest Rates, and Growth,” January 2022.