PUBPOL 5525

Economic and Policy Implications of Artificial Intelligence

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2025-2026 Catalog.

The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) brings both great promise and daunting challenges for the future of humanity. This course examines the impacts of AI from an economist's perspective. We will present the economic framework conventionally used for thinking about technology in the macroeconomy and extend it to analyze the implications of AI. A special focus will be on the disparate labor market consequences of AI and policy measures to address these challenges. Additionally, we will explore, at a more micro-level, the issues of machine bias and algorithmic fairness and discuss the policy implications.

Prerequisites PUBPOL 2101 and MATH 1110.

Enrollment Priority Recommended prerequisite: PUBPOL 2000.

Last 4 Terms Offered (None)

Learning Outcomes

• Use an economic framework to analyze AI’s impacts on growth and labor markets.
• Describe recent labor market trends resulting from technological progress.
• Understand the issues of machine bias and tradeoffs of algorithmic fairness.
• Critically assess academic studies on the economic effects of AI.
• Propose informed policy recommendations on harnessing the benefits of AI while minimizing potential harms.

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