Robert Seamans (economist)
Robert Seamans | |
|---|---|
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business , (Ph.D.) Yale School of Management , (M.A.) Reed College, (B.A.) |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Microeconomics, labor economics |
| Institutions | New York University Stern School of Business |
Robert Seamans is an American economist and professor at New York University's Stern School of Business.[1] His research focuses on Business strategy, Entrepreneurship, Public policy and competition policy.[2] He serves as Director of the Center for the Future of Management and Professor of Management and strategy.[3] He also served Senior Economist for Technology and Innovation on the Council of Economic Advisers under President Obama.[4]
His work has been published in The Atlantic, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and The Wall Street Journal.[5]
Education and career
Seamans earned his B.A. in English from Reed College in 1996, where he wrote a senior thesis on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, followed by an MBA from Yale School of Management in 2001.[6] He completed an M.A. in Economics at Boston University in 2004 and a Ph.D. in Business Administration at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business in 2009.[7] His dissertation received UC Berkeley's Best Dissertation in Competition Policy award.[8]
Joining NYU Stern in 2009 as an Assistant Professor of Management, Seamans became Associate Professor in 2015 and granted tenure in 2017.[9] He attained full professorship in 2023.[10] Since 2020, he has directed NYU Stern's Center for the Future of Management and served as Academic Director of the Black in Business Program from 2023 to 2024.[11] He is also serving as professor of economics (by courtesy).[12]
Seamans holds affiliations with institutions, including the Brookings Institution as a Non-resident Senior Fellow, Accenture Research’s Thought Leadership Advisory Council, and the Center for Democracy and Technology, where he previously served as a Non-resident Fellow.[3] He is also affiliated with Princeton University’s Center for Information Technology Policy.[7]
Seamans served as Senior Economist for Technology, Innovation, and Competition Policy on the White House Council of Economic Advisers during the Obama administration from 2015 to 2016.[1] His policy work focused on issues such as artificial intelligence, robotics, broadband access, and technology competition and regulation.[13]
Research and views
Seamans' research examines the economic and strategic implications of emerging technologies.[14] Together with Ed Felten of Princeton and Manav Raj of University of Pennsylvania, he developed the Artificial Intelligence Occupational Exposure (AIOE) measure.[15] His other studies analyze robotics adoption in manufacturing, competition in two-sided market settings, and discrimination in small business lending.[16]
Seamans has advocated for balanced approaches to technology policy, arguing that while the US need not adopt fully centralized regulation of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, coordinated government attention to workforce impacts remains critical.[17] In a 2023 statement regarding AI policy, he characterized existing approaches as a huge missed opportunity, emphasizing the need for administration officials to address technological displacement and retraining needs for affected workers.[15]
He has received research funding from the National Science Foundation, Kauffman Foundation, Smith Richardson Foundation and Microsoft AI Economic Institute.[18] His projects investigate AI's impact on labor markets and strategic responses to technological change.[19]
He serves on editorial boards for Management Science and Strategy Science and has organized conferences on AI policy and strategy.[20]
Personal life
Seamans is married and resides with his family in New York. His grandfather, Robert C. Seamans Jr, was an administrator at NASA.[21]
Selected publications
- Seamans, Robert; Raj, Manav; Felten, Edward W. (2023). "Occupational Heterogeneity in Exposure to Generative AI". SSRN Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.4414065. ISSN 1556-5068.
- Seamans, Robert; Buffington, Catherine; Goldschlag, Nathan; Li, J. Frank; Miranda, Javier; Brynjolfsson, Erik (2023-05-01). "Robot Hubs: The Skewed Distribution of Robots in US Manufacturing". AEA Papers and Proceedings. 113: 215–218. doi:10.1257/pandp.20231038. ISSN 2574-0768.
- Seamans, Robert; Cook, Lisa; Atkins, Rachel (2021-07-05). "Discrimination in lending? Evidence from the Paycheck Protection Program". Small Business Economics. 58 (2): 843–865. doi:10.1007/s11187-021-00533-1. ISSN 0921-898X. PMC 8255164.
- Seamans, Robert; Rietveld, Joost; Meggiorin, Katia (September 2021). "Market Orchestrators: The Effects of Certification on Platforms and Their Complementors". Strategy Science. 6 (3): 244–264. doi:10.1287/stsc.2021.0135. ISSN 2333-2050.
- Seamans, Robert; Furman, Jason (2019). "AI and the Economy". Innovation Policy and the Economy. 19: 161–191. doi:10.1086/699936. ISSN 1531-3468.
- Seamans, Robert C. (2013). "Threat of entry, asymmetric information, and pricing". Strategic Management Journal. 34 (4): 426–444. doi:10.1002/smj.2017. ISSN 1097-0266.
- Seamans, Robert; Zhu, Feng (2017). "Repositioning and Cost-Cutting: The Impact of Competition on Platform Strategies". Strategy Science. 2 (2): 83–99. doi:10.1287/stsc.2017.0027. ISSN 2333-2050.
References
- ^ a b Riback, Chris (2019-08-05). "Robert Seamans, NYU -- AI and the Economy". Working Capital Review. Retrieved 2025-04-25.
- ^ Omeokwe, Amara. "AI Could Spur an Economic Boom. Humans Are in the Way". WSJ. Retrieved 2025-04-25.
- ^ a b "Robert Seamans". Brookings. Retrieved 2025-04-25.
- ^ Maclay, Kathleen (2015-08-28). "Four Berkeley grads join White House Council of Economic Advisers". Berkeley News. Retrieved 2025-04-25.
- ^ "We Robot 2019". robots.law.miami.edu. Archived from the original on 2024-12-07. Retrieved 2025-04-26.
- ^ "Robert Seamans". sites.bu.edu. Technology & Policy Research Initiative. Retrieved 2025-04-25.
- ^ a b "CITP Luncheon Speaker Series: Robert Seamans". www.cs.princeton.edu. CS. Retrieved 2025-04-25.
- ^ "Business & Public Policy Dissertations & Placements". Berkeley Haas. Retrieved 2025-04-25.
- ^ Pethokoukis, James (2019-03-29). "Will Artificial Intelligence Change the Economy for the Better? A Long-read Q&A with Robert Seamans". American Enterprise Institute - AEI. Archived from the original on 2023-05-23. Retrieved 2025-04-25.
- ^ "Thinking about Generative AI: A Discussion with Professor Robert Seamans - NYU Stern". www.stern.nyu.edu. Retrieved 2025-04-26.
- ^ https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2024-06/Oxford%20Future%20of%20Professionals%20Roundtable%20Booklet.pdf Robert Seamans Robert Seamans (PhD, UC Berkeley) is a Professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, Director of the NYU Stern Center for the Future of Management, and a nonresident Senior Fellow at Brookings.
- ^ "NYU Stern - Robert Seamans - Professor of Management and Organizations". www.stern.nyu.edu. Retrieved 2025-04-26.
- ^ Tyrrell, James (2022-12-21). "Technology News". TechHQ. TechHQ Latest Technology News & Analysis. Retrieved 2025-04-26.
- ^ "Introducing the new series: The economics and regulation of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies". Brookings. Retrieved 2025-04-26.
- ^ a b Wu, Yan; Peçanha, Sergio. "Opinion | Type in your job to see how much AI will affect it". Washington Post. Retrieved 2025-04-26.
- ^ Beleckis, Jonah (2023-11-20). "Are robots taking Wisconsin jobs? Not quite, new research shows". WPR. Retrieved 2025-04-26.
- ^ Comunale, Mariarosaria; Manera, Andrea (2024-03-22). "The Economic Impacts and the Regulation of AI: A Review of the Academic Literature and Policy Actions". IMF Working Papers. 2024 (065). doi:10.5089/9798400268588.001.A001.
- ^ "Robot census: Gathering data to improve policymaking on new technologies". Brookings. Retrieved 2025-04-26.
- ^ Miller, Claire Cain; Cox, Courtney (2023-08-24). "In Reversal Because of A.I., Office Jobs Are Now More at Risk". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-04-25.
- ^ "Discussion: View Thread - Strategic Management". str.aom.org. Retrieved 2025-04-26.
- ^ Bernstein, Adam (2008-07-01). "Robert Seamans Jr., 89; Scientist Led Push for Manned Space Flights". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2025-04-26.