Jonathan Haskel on AI and Productivity: A General Purpose Technology Approach

Video & Timestamps

On Thursday, June 5, Jonathan Haskel joined Markus’ Academy for a conversation on “AI and Productivity: A General Purpose Technology Approach.” Jonathan Haskel is Professor of Economics at Imperial Business School and, from 2018 until 2024, he was a member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee.

Watch the full presentation below.  You can watch all Markus’ Academy webinars on the Markus’ Academy YouTube channel.

Timestamps:

[0:00] Markus’ introduction

[5:01] AI as a “GPT” and an “IMI”

[17:01] Modeling general purpose technologies

[25:08] Two generations of AI

[34:17] New estimates of AI’s impact on labor productivity growth

[46:19] Q&A and implications for monetary policy

Full Summary

• A summary in four bullets
  • In the talk Haskel presented his work as a part of the EUKLEMS-INTANProd project, joint with Filippo Bontadini, Carol Corrado, and Cecilia Jona-Lasinio
  • AI’s impact on labor productivity can be understood through its role as a general purpose technology and an innovation in the method of invention
  • A growth accounting framework can be used to study the labor productivity effects of AI. Existing estimates such as Acemoglu (2024) mostly look at cost savings from estimates of how AI might replace human tasks
  • Estimates suggest AI could lead to a rise of around 0.7% labor productivity growth per year, driven by TFP growth in AI software/data and intangible business functions, as well as capital deepening in software/data and intangible assets
• Click here for the full summary