Friday Assorted Links: Denmark, AI Economics, Faculty Dismissals, and More
Key Takeaways
- •The New School in New York City terminated tenured economist Sanjay Reddy, a rare action at American universities that highlights the conflict between institutional finances and academic freedom.
- •Harvard economist and John Bates Clark Medal recipient Melissa Dell partnered with Rambachan to produce an NBER video examining the economic effects of artificial intelligence.
- •Anton Leicht published an analysis exploring how the concentration of power may evolve as AI technology advances.
- •GPT 5.6 has reportedly been applied to social choice theory, signaling AI's expanding reach into domains traditionally reserved for political philosophers and welfare economists.
- •OpenAI released a 37-minute discussion on the Book of Exodus, reflecting the organization's engagement with religious and historical texts.
-
Books that Tyler Cowen probably would like.
-
The tenure dismissal of Sanjay Reddy (NYT). The New School in New York City terminated faculty member Sanjay Reddy, an economist known for his work on development and distributional issues. Tenure dismissals are rare at American universities, and the case draws attention to the tension between institutional financial pressures and the academic-freedom protections that tenure is designed to guarantee.
-
Dell and Rambachan's NBER video on the economics of AI. Melissa Dell, a Harvard economist and John Bates Clark Medal recipient, has published widely on how technology and labor markets interact, making this pairing with Rambachan a notable contribution to the fast-growing literature on AI's economic effects. Tyler Cowen notes he has yet to view it but calls it "self-recommending."
-
Anton Leicht on AI and how the concentration of power will evolve. Described as a "very good piece."
-
Universities would prefer not to.
-
Which polities can you really trust?
-
GPT 5.6 is working on social choice theory. Social choice theory, rooted in Arrow's impossibility theorem and related work, studies how individual preferences can or cannot be aggregated into collective decisions, and AI systems tackling these problems signals the field's expanding reach into domains traditionally reserved for political philosophers and welfare economists.
-
OpenAI's 37-minute talk on the Book of Exodus.
