New paper flips 'canaries' framing: AI productivity gains signal organization capital, not warning
TaniaBabina · x · 2026-11-14
Economist Tania Babina presented "Canaries in the Gold Mine" at the NBER Organizational Economics conference, a deliberate counterpoint to Brynjolfsson et al.'s "Canaries in the Coal Mine?". While the earlier paper read declining AI-era employment as a warning, her team argues early AI productivity gains are a positive signal — AI is helping firms build organization capital. Daniel Rock served as discussant; the paper is publicly available.
Related event: NBER Paper: Early AI Productivity Gains Build Organizational Capital(3 posts)→
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