nep-ain New Economics Papers
on Artificial Intelligence
Issue of 2025–10–27
twelve papers chosen by
Ben Greiner, Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien


  1. Friend or Foe: Delegating to an AI Whose Alignment is Unknown By Drew Fudenberg; Annie Liang
  2. Buyer-Optimal Algorithmic Recommendations By Ichihashi, Shota; Smolin, Alex
  3. Using Generative AI to Increase Skeptics’ Engagement with Climate Science By Bago, Bence; Muller, Philippe; Bonnefon, Jean-François
  4. The Economics of AI Foundation Models: Openness, Competition, and Governance By Fasheng Xu; Xiaoyu Wang; Wei Chen; Karen Xie
  5. AI news shocks and the macroeconomy: evidence from UK patent data By Anastasios Evgenidis; Apostolos Fasianos
  6. Technology and Labor Markets: Past, Present, and Future; Evidence from Two Centuries of Innovation By Huben Liu; Dimitris Papanikolaou; Lawrence D.W. Schmidt; Bryan Seegmiller
  7. The Impact of AI Adoption on Retail Across Countries and Industries By Yunqi Liu
  8. Generative AI and Firm Productivity: Field Experiments in Online Retail By Lu Fang; Zhe Yuan; Kaifu Zhang; Dante Donati; Miklos Sarvary
  9. AI Behavioral Science By 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
  10. A theory-based AI automation exposure index: Applying Moravec's Paradox to the US labor market By Jacob Schaal
  11. Large Language Models and Futures Price Factors in China By Yuhan Cheng; Heyang Zhou; Yanchu Liu
  12. Exploring the Synergy of Quantitative Factors and Newsflow Representations from Large Language Models for Stock Return Prediction By Tian Guo; Emmanuel Hauptmann

  1. By: Drew Fudenberg; Annie Liang
    Abstract: AI systems have the potential to improve decision-making, but decision makers face the risk that the AI may be misaligned with their objectives. We study this problem in the context of a treatment decision, where a designer decides which patient attributes to reveal to an AI before receiving a prediction of the patient's need for treatment. Providing the AI with more information increases the benefits of an aligned AI but also amplifies the harm from a misaligned one. We characterize how the designer should select attributes to balance these competing forces, depending on their beliefs about the AI's reliability. We show that the designer should optimally disclose attributes that identify \emph{rare} segments of the population in which the need for treatment is high, and pool the remaining patients.
    Date: 2025–09
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2509.14396
  2. By: Ichihashi, Shota; Smolin, Alex
    Abstract: In markets where algorithmic data processing is increasingly prevalent, recom-mendation algorithms can substantially affect trade and welfare. We consider a setting in which an algorithm recommends a product based on its value to the buyer and its price. We characterize an algorithm that maximizes the buyer’s expected payoff and show that it strategically biases recommendations to induce lower prices. Revealing the buyer’s value to the seller leaves overall payoffs un-changed while leading to more dispersed prices and a more equitable distribution of surplus across buyer types. These results extend to all Pareto-optimal algorithms and to multiseller markets, with implications for AI assistants and e-commerce ranking systems.
    Date: 2025–10
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:130999
  3. By: Bago, Bence; Muller, Philippe; Bonnefon, Jean-François
    Date: 2025–10
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:131011
  4. By: Fasheng Xu; Xiaoyu Wang; Wei Chen; Karen Xie
    Abstract: The strategic choice of model "openness" has become a defining issue for the foundation model (FM) ecosystem. While this choice is intensely debated, its underlying economic drivers remain underexplored. We construct a two-period game-theoretic model to analyze how openness shapes competition in an AI value chain, featuring an incumbent developer, a downstream deployer, and an entrant developer. Openness exerts a dual effect: it amplifies knowledge spillovers to the entrant, but it also enhances the incumbent's advantage through a "data flywheel effect, " whereby greater user engagement today further lowers the deployer's future fine-tuning cost. Our analysis reveals that the incumbent's optimal first-period openness is surprisingly non-monotonic in the strength of the data flywheel effect. When the data flywheel effect is either weak or very strong, the incumbent prefers a higher level of openness; however, for an intermediate range, it strategically restricts openness to impair the entrant's learning. This dynamic gives rise to an "openness trap, " a critical policy paradox where transparency mandates can backfire by removing firms' strategic flexibility, reducing investment, and lowering welfare. We extend the model to show that other common interventions can be similarly ineffective. Vertical integration, for instance, only benefits the ecosystem when the data flywheel effect is strong enough to overcome the loss of a potentially more efficient competitor. Likewise, government subsidies intended to spur adoption can be captured entirely by the incumbent through strategic price and openness adjustments, leaving the rest of the value chain worse off. By modeling the developer's strategic response to competitive and regulatory pressures, we provide a robust framework for analyzing competition and designing effective policy in the complex and rapidly evolving FM ecosystem.
    Date: 2025–10
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2510.15200
  5. By: Anastasios Evgenidis (Royal Holloway University London); Apostolos Fasianos (Brunel University of London)
    Date: 2025–10–16
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:25/48
  6. By: Huben Liu; Dimitris Papanikolaou; Lawrence D.W. Schmidt; Bryan Seegmiller
    Abstract: We use recent advances in natural language processing and large language models to construct novel measures of technology exposure for workers that span almost two centuries. Combining our measures with Census data on occupation employment, we show that technological progress over the 20th century has led to economically meaningful shifts in labor demand across occupations: it has consistently increased demand for occupations with higher education requirements, occupations that pay higher wages, and occupations with a greater fraction of female workers. Using these insights and a calibrated model, we then explore different scenarios for how advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are likely to impact employment trends in the medium run. The model predicts a reversal of past trends, with AI favoring occupations that are lower-educated, lower-paid, and more male-dominated.
    JEL: J23 J24 N3 O3 O4
    Date: 2025–10
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34386
  7. By: Yunqi Liu
    Abstract: This study investigates the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) adoption on job loss rates using the Global AI Content Impact Dataset (2020--2025). The panel comprises 200 industry-country-year observations across Australia, China, France, Japan, and the United Kingdom in ten industries. A three-stage ordinary least squares (OLS) framework is applied. First, a full-sample regression finds no significant linear association between AI adoption rate and job loss rate ($\beta \approx -0.0026$, $p = 0.949$). Second, industry-specific regressions identify the marketing and retail sectors as closest to significance. Third, interaction-term models quantify marginal effects in those two sectors, revealing a significant retail interaction effect ($-0.138$, $p
    Date: 2025–09
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2509.15885
  8. By: Lu Fang; Zhe Yuan; Kaifu Zhang; Dante Donati; Miklos Sarvary
    Abstract: We quantify the impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) on firm productivity through a series of large-scale randomized field experiments involving millions of users and products at a leading cross-border online retail platform. Over six months in 2023-2024, GenAI-based enhancements were integrated into seven consumer-facing business workflows. We find that GenAI adoption significantly increases sales, with treatment effects ranging from 0% to 16.3%, depending on GenAI’s marginal contribution relative to existing firm practices. Because inputs and prices were held constant across experimental arms, these gains map directly into total factor productivity improvements. Across the four GenAI applications with positive effects, the implied annual incremental value is approximately $5 per consumer—an economically meaningful impact given the retailer’s scale and the early stage of GenAI adoption. The primary mechanism operates through higher conversion rates, consistent with GenAI reducing frictions in the marketplace and improving consumer experience. We also document substantial heterogeneity: smaller and newer sellers, as well as less experienced consumers, exhibit disproportionately larger gains. Our findings provide novel, large-scale causal evidence on the productivity effects of GenAI in online retail, highlighting both its immediate value and broader potential.
    Keywords: field experiments, generative AI, productivity, retail platforms, consumer experience
    JEL: C93 D24 L81 M31 O3
    Date: 2025
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12201
  9. By: 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
    Abstract: We discuss the three main areas comprising the new and emerging field of "AI Behavioral Science". This includes not only how AI can enhance research in the behavioral sciences, but also how the behavioral sciences can be used to study and better design AI and to understand how the world will change as AI and humans interact in increasingly layered and complex ways.
    Date: 2025–08
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2509.13323
  10. By: Jacob Schaal
    Abstract: This paper develops a theory-driven automation exposure index based on Moravec's Paradox. Scoring 19, 000 O*NET tasks on performance variance, tacit knowledge, data abundance, and algorithmic gaps reveals that management, STEM, and sciences occupations show the highest exposure. In contrast, maintenance, agriculture, and construction show the lowest. The positive relationship between wages and exposure challenges the notion of skill-biased technological change if AI substitutes for workers. At the same time, tacit knowledge exhibits a positive relationship with wages consistent with seniority-biased technological change. This index identifies fundamental automatability rather than current capabilities, while also validating the AI annotation method pioneered by Eloundou et al. (2024) with a correlation of 0.72. The non-positive relationship with pre-LLM indices suggests a paradigm shift in automation patterns.
    Date: 2025–10
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2510.13369
  11. By: Yuhan Cheng; Heyang Zhou; Yanchu Liu
    Abstract: We leverage the capacity of large language models such as Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) in constructing factor models for Chinese futures markets. We successfully obtain 40 factors to design single-factor and multi-factor portfolios through long-short and long-only strategies, conducting backtests during the in-sample and out-of-sample period. Comprehensive empirical analysis reveals that GPT-generated factors deliver remarkable Sharpe ratios and annualized returns while maintaining acceptable maximum drawdowns. Notably, the GPT-based factor models also achieve significant alphas over the IPCA benchmark. Moreover, these factors demonstrate significant performance across extensive robustness tests, particularly excelling after the cutoff date of GPT's training data.
    Date: 2025–09
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2509.23609
  12. By: Tian Guo; Emmanuel Hauptmann
    Abstract: In quantitative investing, return prediction supports various tasks, including stock selection, portfolio optimization, and risk management. Quantitative factors, such as valuation, quality, and growth, capture various characteristics of stocks. Unstructured financial data, like news and transcripts, has attracted growing attention, driven by recent advances in large language models (LLMs). This paper examines effective methods for leveraging multimodal factors and newsflow in return prediction and stock selection. First, we introduce a fusion learning framework to learn a unified representation from factors and newsflow representations generated by an LLM. Within this framework, we compare three representative methods: representation combination, representation summation, and attentive representations. Next, building on empirical observations from fusion learning, we explore the mixture model that adaptively combines predictions made by single modalities and their fusion. To mitigate the training instability observed in the mixture model, we introduce a decoupled training approach with theoretical insights. Finally, our experiments on real investment universes yield several insights into effective multimodal modeling of factors and news for stock return prediction.
    Date: 2025–10
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2510.15691

This nep-ain issue is ©2025 by Ben Greiner. It is provided as is without any express or implied warranty. It may be freely redistributed in whole or in part for any purpose. If distributed in part, please include this notice.
General information on the NEP project can be found at https://nep.repec.org. For comments please write to the director of NEP, Marco Novarese at <director@nep.repec.org>. Put “NEP” in the subject, otherwise your mail may be rejected.
NEP’s infrastructure is sponsored by the School of Economics and Finance of Massey University in New Zealand.