CARD

Assistant Professor, Carnegie Mellon University (Incoming, September 2026)
Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy (tenure-track)
School of Computer Science (by courtesy)


Google AI & Economy Researcher, Google

Other Affiliations
Chicago Booth Center for Applied AI, Affiliate
CESifo, Research Network Fellow
J-PAL, Invited Researcher
Innovation Growth Lab, Research Affiliate

Research Interests
Behavioral & Experimental Economics; Applied AI, Digital Economy & Information Systems

Research Programs
Artificial Process Outsourcing

Contact Information
jabarian@cmu.edu
Curriculum Vitae | Google Scholar

BIOGRAPHY


I am an economist studying the economics of artificial intelligence. My research examines how artificial intelligence is transforming labor markets, information systems, and organizational decision-making — and what these changes mean for workers, firms, and the broader economy.

I am currently the Howard and Nancy Marks Fellow at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and will join Carnegie Mellon University as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy, and as a faculty member by courtesy in the School of Computer Science. I am also an inaugural Google AI & Economy Researcher. I received my Ph.D. in economics from the Paris School of Economics and my Ph.D. in philosophy from the Sorbonne, both in 2023.

I build research partnerships with organizations to generate causal evidence at scale about AI systems by combining field experiments, real-world operational and market data, and equilibrium and welfare analysis. My work has been covered by The Wall Street Journal, NPR Planet Money, Bloomberg, Fast Company, Poets & Quants, Business Insider, Financial Times, The Information, HuffPost, among others. I have received grants and awards from Google, Schmidt Sciences, SNSF, BFI, and the University of Chicago, among others.  I am regularly invited for academic, industry, and policy talks (see all my upcoming and past ones here).

SELECTED RESEARCH

Choice as Signal: Designing AI Adoption in Labor Market Screening
with Pëllumb Reshidi
SSRN
Fast Company | Chicago Booth AI

Voice AI in Firms: A Natural Field Experiment on Automated Job Interviews

with Luca Henkel
SSRN | Slides | Summary | NABE E. A. Mannis Prize | 2025 Thaler-Tversky Award
Bloomberg | The Information | HuffPost | Poets & Quant | Marginal Revolution | Fast Company | NPR | Booth Center for Applied AI (interview) | Business Insider | Financial Times | Fortune | Nasdaq | El Espectador | TF1 | Slate FR | National Affairs | see more

Artificial Writing and Automated Detection
with Alex Imas
SSRN | NBER | Replication Package
The Information | Marginal Revolution | Forbes | Chicago Booth Review | TechLearning | YC News | see more

AI Behavioral Science
with Matthew O. Jackson, Qiaozhu Mei, Stephanie W. Wang, Yutong Xie, Walter Yuan, Seth Benzell, Erik Brynjolfsson, Colin F. Camerer, James Evans, Jon Kleinberg, Juanjuan Meng, Sendhil Mullainathan, Asu Ozdaglar, Thomas Pfeiffer, Moshe Tennenholtz, Robb Willer, Diyi Yang, and Teng Ye
SSRN | ArXiv

The Next Generation of Experimental Research with LLMs
with Gary Charness and John List
Nature Human Behaviour, 2025
NBER | Teaching Slides
World Economic Forum | Chicago Booth Review | VoxEU Column