Essays on information technology, intangible capital, and the economics of artificial intelligence

This dissertation contains four essays concerning the economics of information technology, intangible capital, and artificial intelligence. In the first essay, "Engineering Value: The Returns to Technological Talent and Investments in Artificial Intelligence" I describe how firms can appropriate some of the value of their employees' human capital by assigning firm-specific tasks. I then use a database of employment records to document dynamics in the valuation of publicly traded firms as they relate to different types of employment, focusing especially on AI skills. The second essay, "The Productivity J-Curve: How Intangibles Complement General Purpose Technologies" (coauthored with Erik Brynjolfsson and Chad Syverson) addresses the concern that new technologies with wide applicability throughout the economy can cause both underestimation and overestimation of total factor productivity.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Sloan School of Management

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Rock, Daniel Ian.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Erik Brynjolfsson.

• Sloan School of Management.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/123582

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/123582