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

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.
Brynjolfsson, Erik, Meng Liu, Jason Dowlatabadi, “Do Digital Platforms Reduce Moral Hazard? The Case of Uber and Taxis,” Management Science, August 2021.
Brynjolfsson, Erik. Wang Jin, and Kristina McElheran. “The Power of Prediction: Predictive Analytics, Workplace Complements, and Business Performance,” June 2021.
Bana, Sarah H., Erik Brynjolfsson, Wang Jin, Sebastian Steffen, and Xiupeng Wang, “Cybersecurity Hiring in Response to Data Breaches,” SSRN, March 2021.
John (Jianqiu) Bai, Erik Brynjolfsson, Wang Jin, Sebastian Steffen, and Chi Wan, “Digital Resilience: How Work-From-Home Feasibility Affects Firm Performance,” NBER, March 2021.
Prasanna Tambe, Lorin Hitt, Daniel Rock & Erik Brynjolfsson, December 2020, “Digital Capital and Superstar Firms” NBER Working Paper, DOI 10.3386/w28285, Cambridge, MA.
Zolas, N., Kroff, Z., Brynjolfsson, E., McElheran, K., Beede, D., Buffington, C., Goldschlag, N., Foster, L. & Dinlersoz, E., December 2020, “Advanced Technologies Adoption and Use by U.S. Firms: Evidence from the Annual Business Survey”, NBER working paper, DOI 10.3386/w28290 Cambridge, MA
Brynjolfsson, Erik, John Horton, Adam Ozimek, Daniel Rock, Garima Sharma and Hong Yi Tu Ye (2020) "COVID-19 and Remote Work: An Early Look at US Data", NBER working paper, May.
Brynjolfsson, Erik, Avinash Collis, W. Erwin Diewert, Felix Eggers and Kevin J. Fox. "Measuring the Impact of Free Goods on Real Household Consumption." January 10, 2020. Forthcomimg: AEA Papers and Proceedings, 110 (May 2020). SSRN abstract 3517017.
Brynjolfsson, Erik, Xiang Hui and Meng Liu. "Does Machine Translation Affect International Trade? Evidence from a Large Digital Platform." Management Science, 65(12): 5449-60. doi: 10.1287/mnsc.2019.3388.
Brynjolfsson, Erik and Avinash Collis. "How Should We Measure the Digital Economy?" Harvard Business Review, 97(6): 140-48. doi: 10.1257/aer.20170491
Bloom, Nicholas, Erik Brynjolfsson, Lucia Foster, Ron Jarmin, Megha Patnaik, Itay Saporta-Eksten and John Van Reenen. "What Drives Differences in Management Practices?" American Economic Review, 109(5): 1648-83. doi: 10.1257/aer.20170491
Frank, Morgan, David Autor, James. E. Bessen, Erik Brynjolfsson, Manuel Cebrian, David J. Deming, Maryann Feldman et al. "Toward Understanding the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Labor." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(14): 6531-39. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1900949116. April 2, 2019.