Research
Papers
The key line of work: the economics of AGI — alongside earlier research on stablecoins, digitization, entrepreneurship, and science.
Flagship — Working paper · 2026
Some Simple Economics of AGI
The measurability gap and the economics of verification.
A unified economic theory of the AGI transition. As the cost to automate falls faster than the cost to verify, a widening Measurability Gap separates what agents can execute from what humans can afford to verify — making verification, not intelligence, the binding constraint on growth. The framework partitions work into four regimes, formalizes measurability-biased technical change, and shows how unverified deployment drifts toward a Hollow Economy of counterfeit utility unless observability, accelerated mastery, and graceful degradation expand society’s verification bandwidth.
Featured publications
Citations
Google Scholar ↗Source: Google Scholar · updated July 2026 · 7,807 citations since 2021
Executive education
MIT Sloan Executive Education ↗
Archive — by area
Stablecoins & Libra
2025 · How Will Stablecoins Integrate with the Financial System? — Centre for International Governance Innovation
2021 · On the Economic Design of Stablecoins — Working paper
2021 · From Stablecoins to CBDCs: The Public Benefits of a Public-Private Partnership — Working paper
2021 · Markets for Crypto Tokens, and Security under Proof of Stake — Working paper
2021 · Setting Standards for Stablecoin Reserves — Working paper
2021 · Why Is the United States Lagging Behind in Payments? — Working paper
2019 · Antitrust and Costless Verification: An Optimistic and a Pessimistic View of Blockchain Technology — Antitrust Law Journal
2019 · Market Design for a Blockchain-Based Financial System — Working paper
2019 · Moving Toward Permissionless Consensus — The Libra Association
2019 · The Libra Blockchain — The Libra Association
2019 · The Libra Reserve — The Libra Association
2018 · Blockchain Technology and Cryptocurrencies: Implications for the Digital Economy, Cybersecurity, and Government — Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
2018 · Blockchain Technology and Organization Science: Decentralization Theatre or Novel Organizational Form? — Working Paper
2018 · Technological Opportunity, Bubbles and Innovation: The Dynamics of Initial Coin Offerings — Working Paper
2018 · Initial Coin Offerings and the Value of Crypto Tokens — Working paper
Entrepreneurship & science
2020 · How Do Travel Costs Shape Collaboration? — Management Science
2019 · Passive Versus Active Growth: Evidence from Founder Choices and Venture Capital Investment — NBER Working Paper 26073
2018 · Slack Time and Innovation — Organization Science
2017 · Hidden in Plain Sight: Venture Growth With or Without Venture Capital — MIT Working Paper
2017 · Microgeography and the Direction of Inventive Activity — Management Science
2017 · Soft Information versus Bias in New Venture Finance: Machine Intelligence versus Human Judgment — Work in Progress
2016 · Are Syndicates the Killer App of Equity Crowdfunding? — California Management Review
2016 · Can Equity Crowdfunding Democratize Access to Capital and Investment Opportunities? — MIT Innovation Initiative Policy Report
2015 · Crowdfunding: Geography, Social Networks, and the Timing of Investment Decisions — Journal of Economics & Management Strategy
2015 · The Incidence and Role of Negative Citations in Science — Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
2014 · Some Simple Economics of Crowdfunding — Innovation Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press
2010 · Tracing the Linkages Between Science and Technology — Research Policy