NBER paper: training your AI replacement can actually raise workers' pay
joshgans · x · 2026-10-31
An NBER working paper (w35950) by Joshua Gans and Peter Landry models worker incentives when firms ask employees to train AI systems that will replace them.
- Workers can shirk, cooperate, or obstruct; since training ends the job, dismissal becomes a weak penalty, forcing firms to pay workers rents above market rates.
- Counterintuitively, AI can create jobs paying more than they produce and eliminate jobs it never automates.
- Wage-only pay slows training; a credible completion bonus equal to the worker's rent without AI removes both the gain and the slowdown.
The acknowledgments note Claude Opus 5.5 and ChatGPT 6 Astra served as research assistants.
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