In this podcast we discuss how data from labor platforms like LinkedIn allows us to understand the economy in new ways and how labor and technology intersect more broadly. Our guest is Prasanna (Sonny) Tambe of NYU’s Stern School of Business. Sonny’s specialty is in using new data to study how workers and technologies spread across firms. We start this conversation by discussing the Workshop on Information Systems and Economics (WISE), the conference we were both attending. Next, we move on to a discussion the advantages of platform data over administrative and survey data in labor economics. We then discuss several of Sonny’s papers. These include a paper on the importance of geography for collaboration in open source and the factors affecting agglomeration economies in the technology sector. We then discuss worker training, coding bootcamps, and information systems degrees at business schools. Lastly, Sonny speculates on the unanswered questions in the field and on the potential effects of AI.
References:
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- Workshop on Information Systems and Economics
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- Labor Economists Get Their Microscope: Big Data and Labor Market Analysis by John Horton and Prasanna Tambe
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- Big Data Investment, Skills, and Firm Value – By Prasanna Tambe
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- Job Hopping, Information Technology Spillovers, and Productivity Growth by Lorin M. Hitt and Prasanna Tambe.
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- Regional Disadvantage? Employee Non-compete Agreements and Brain Drain by M. Marx, J. Singh, & L. Fleming.