Research

(2024) Jacobs, "Digital Shocks and Political Polarization," Technological Forecasting and Social Change 

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The study summarizes the demographic characteristics and socio-political views of the highly AI-exposed and automation-susceptible groups. It deploys a year and region fixed effects OLS model, with standard error clustered at the occupation level. This study then finds that automation susceptible ‘losers’ of technological change are more likely to be culturally conservative and economically left leaning. Those complimented by digital shocks are more likely to hold socially liberal and fiscally conservative views... Read more. 

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(2023) Muro, Jacobs, and Liu, "Building AI cities: How to spread the benefits of an emerging technology across more of America," The Brookings Institution  

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Dramatic advances in generative artificial intelligence (AI) have touched off intense debates about who will “win” the rush to deploy these technologies. Much has been written about AI’s potential to displace millions of workers, but leaders across the country also see the emerging technology as an opportunity to boost the productivity and dynamism of their regional economies. Read more.

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(2019) Jacobs, "Is this Time Different? Artificial Intelligence, Inequality and the Future of Work," Brown University

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Undergraduate senior thesis, focused on the economic consequences of modern digitally-enabled automation. Is today’s AI really such a momentous force, destined to render large numbers of Americans permanently redundant? Or will digitally-enabled automation follow previous patterns of historical automation, displacing some workers and increasing inequality only in the short run?