Does AI Cheapen Talk? Theory and Evidence from Global Entrepreneurship and Hiring
References
- (2022a) The REAL fight over AI art. Accessed November 19, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiJeB2NJy1A.Google Scholar
- (2022b) Tweet by @cleoabram. Twitter (September 14), https://x.com/i/status/1570043396961476609.Google Scholar
- (2018) Ban the box, criminal records, and racial discrimination: A field experiment. Quart. J. Econom. 133(1):191–235.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2025) AI suggestions homogenize writing toward western styles and diminish cultural nuances. Yamashita N, Evers V, Yatani K, Ding X(S), Lee B, Chetty M, Dugas PT, eds. Proc. 2025 CHI Conf. Human Factors Comput. Systems (Association for Computing Machinery, New York), 1–21.Google Scholar
- (2021) AI adoption and system-wide change. NBER Working Paper No. 28811, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
- (2021) Algorithm-augmented work and domain experience: The countervailing forces of ability and aversion. Organ. Sci. 33(1):149–169. Link, Google Scholar
- (2022) Beijing’s central role in global artificial intelligence research. Nature Sci. Rep. 12(1):21461.Google Scholar
- (2020) The allocation of decision authority to human and artificial intelligence. AEA Papers Proc. 110:80–84.Google Scholar
- (2019) Complementarity of signals in early-stage equity investment decisions: Evidence from a randomized field experiment. Management Sci. 65(2):933–952.Link, Google Scholar
- (2023) The future of venture capital? Insights into data-driven VCs. California Management Rev.Google Scholar
- (2024) Hunting for talent: Firm‐driven labor market search in the United States. Strategic Management J. 45(3):429–462.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2003) Latent Dirichlet allocation. J. Machine Learn. Res. 3:993–1022.Google Scholar
- (2012) Americans do IT better: US multinationals and the productivity miracle. Amer. Econom. Rev. 102(1):167–201.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2013) Engineering trust: Reciprocity in the production of reputation information. Management Sci. 59(2):265–285.Link, Google Scholar
- (2022) Picking on the same person: Does algorithmic monoculture lead to outcome homogenization? Koyejo S, Mohamed S, Agarwal A, Belgrave D, Cho K, Oh A, eds. Adv. Neural Inform. Processing Systems, vol. 35 (Neural Information Processing Systems Foundation, Inc., San Diego), 39114.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2025) Generative AI at work. Quart. J. Econom. 140(2):889–942.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2024) ChatGPT hallucinates non-existent citations: Evidence from economics. Amer. Econom. 69(1):80–87.Crossref, Google Scholar
- Campante FR, Durante R, Hagemeister F, Sen A (2025) GenAI misinformation, trust, and news consumption: Evidence from a field experiment. NBER Working Paper No. 34100, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
- (2023) Differentiation in microenterprises. Strategic Management J. 44(5):1141–1167.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2018) Hiring preferences in online labor markets: Evidence of a female hiring bias. Management Sci. 64(7):2973–2994.Link, Google Scholar
- (2025) A.I. is homogenizing our thoughts. The New Yorker (January 25), https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/ai-is-homogenizing-our-thoughts.Google Scholar
- (2024) AI assistance in legal analysis: An empirical study. 73:384.Google Scholar
- (2020) Machine learning and human capital complementarities: Experimental evidence on bias mitigation. Strategic Management J. 41(8):1381–1411.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2023) What is the US comparative advantage in entrepreneurship? Evidence from Israeli migration to the United States. Rev. Econom. Statist. 105(3):528–544.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2024) The selective tailwind effect of A.I. on startups: Predictions and anomalies. Preprint, submitted October 24, https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4958898.Google Scholar
- (2020) Bias and productivity in humans and algorithms: Theory and evidence from resume screening. Preprint, submitted March 21, https://conference.iza.org/conference_files/MacroEcon_2017/cowgill_b8981.pdf.Google Scholar
- (2025) Signaling in the age of AI: Evidence from cover letters. Preprint, submitted September 29, https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.25054.Google Scholar
- (1979) The robust beauty of improper linear models in decision making. Amer. Psych. 34(7):571–582.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2023) The use of artificial intelligence to improve the scientific writing of non-native English speakers. Revista da Associação Médica Brasileira 69(9):e20230560.Google Scholar
- (2022) Falling asleep at the wheel: Human/AI collaboration in a field experiment on HR recruiters. Working paper, University of Michigan, Ross School of Business, Ann Arbor, MI.Google Scholar
- (2025) Super Mario meets AI: Experimental effects of automation and skills on team performance and coordination. Rev. Econom. Statist. 107(4):951–966.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2023) Navigating the jagged technological frontier: Field experimental evidence of the effects of AI on knowledge worker productivity and quality. Preprint, submitted September 18, https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4573321.Google Scholar
- (2020) The unintended consequences of “ban the box”: Statistical discrimination and employment outcomes when criminal histories are hidden. J. Labor Econom. 38(2):321–374.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2024) Generative AI enhances individual creativity but reduces the collective diversity of novel content. Sci. Adv. 10(28):eadn5290.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2024) GPTs are GPTs: Labor market impact potential of LLMs. Science 384(6702):1306–1308.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2023) How will language modelers like ChatGPT affect occupations and industries? Preprint, submitted March 2, https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.01157.Google Scholar
- (2025) Generative AI as a linguistic equalizer in global science. Working paper, Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.Google Scholar
- (2018) Reputation inflation. Tardos E, Elkind E, Vohra R, eds. Proc. 2018 ACM Conf. Econom. Comput. (Association for Computing Machinery, New York), 1–699.Google Scholar
- (1948) A new readability yardstick. J. Appl. Psych. 32(3):221.Google Scholar
- Galdin A, Silbert J (2025) Making talk cheap: Generative AI and labor market signaling. Preprint, submitted November 11, https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.08785.Google Scholar
- (2024) How will generative AI impact communication? Econom. Lett. 242:111872.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2025) The Microeconomics of Artificial Intelligence (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA).Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2019) Foundations of entrepreneurial strategy. Strategic Management J. 40(5):736–756.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2010) Estimating the helpfulness and economic impact of product reviews: Mining text and reviewer characteristics. IEEE Trans. Knowledge Data Engrg. 23(10):1498–1512.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2018) A recombination-based internationalization model: Evidence from Narayana health’s journey from India to the Cayman Islands. Organ. Sci. 30(2):405–425.Link, Google Scholar
- (2023) Deepfakes and the epistemic apocalypse. Synthese 201(3):103.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2017) The Elements of Statistical Learning: Data Mining, Inference, and Prediction, vol. 2 (Springer, New York).Google Scholar
- (2025) The transparency of AI and the profits of the firm. Preprint, submitted October 19, https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5627150.Google Scholar
- (1999) Managerial incentive problems: A dynamic perspective. Rev. Econom. Stud. 66(1):169–182.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (1991) Multitask principal–agent analyses: Incentive contracts, asset ownership, and job design. J. Law Econom. Organ. 7:24–52.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2021) Just DM me (politely): Direct messaging, politeness, and hiring outcomes in online labor markets. Inform. Systems Res. 32(3):786–800.Link, Google Scholar
- (2017) The effects of algorithmic labor market recommendations: Evidence from a field experiment. J. Labor Econom. 35(2):345–385.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2024) Blockchain as a solution to trust issues. ThreadReaderApp. Accessed February 16, 2024, https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1758537324709732549.html.Google Scholar
- (2024) The short-term effects of generative artificial intelligence on employment: Evidence from an online labor market. Organ. Sci. 35(6):1977–1989.Link, Google Scholar
- (1961) Estimation with quadratic loss. Neyman J, ed. Proc. Fourth Berkeley Sympos. Math. Statist. Probab. Vol. 1 Contributions Theory Statist., vol. 4 (University of California Press, Cambridge University Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, London), 767.Google Scholar
- (2024) When and how artificial intelligence augments employee creativity. Acad. Management J. 67(1):5–32.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (1975) On the folly of rewarding A, while hoping for B. Acad. Management J. 18(4):769–783.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2020) Tech clusters. J. Econom. Perspect. 34(3):50–76.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2024) Decision authority and the returns to algorithms. Strategic Management J. 45(4):619–648.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2021) Algorithmic monoculture and social welfare. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 118(22):e2018340118.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2023) Learning to successfully hire in online labor markets. Management Sci. 69(3):1597–1614.Link, Google Scholar
- (2025) Your brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of cognitive debt when using an AI assistant for essay writing task. Preprint, submitted June 10, https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872.Google Scholar
- (2020) Hiring as exploration. NBER Working Paper No. 27736, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
- (2020) Non est disputandum de generalizability? A glimpse into the external validity trial. NBER Working Paper No. 27535, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
- (2020) Opening the black box of the matching function: The power of words. J. Labor Econom. 38(2):535–568.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2017) Do employers forgive applicants’ bad spelling in résumés? Bus. Professional Comm. Quart. 80(3):321–335.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (1994) The validity of employment interviews: A comprehensive review and meta-analysis. J. Appl. Psych. 79(4):599–616.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2024) AI adoption in America: Who, what, and where. J. Econom. Management Strategy 33(2):375–415.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2020) Improving data access democratizes and diversifies science. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 117(38):23490–23498.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2020) The persistent effect of initial success: Evidence from venture capital. J. Financial Econom. 137(1):231–248.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2015) The limits of reputation in platform markets: An empirical analysis and field experiment. NBER Working Paper No. 20830, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
- (2023) Experimental evidence on the productivity effects of generative artificial intelligence. Science 381(6654):187–192.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2024) Global evidence on gender gaps and generative AI. Technical report, Center for Open Science, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
- (2023) The uneven impact of generative AI on entrepreneurial performance. Working paper, University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management, Toronto.Google Scholar
- (2025) Writing without borders: AI and cross-cultural convergence in academic writing quality. Humanities Soc. Sci. Comm. 12(1):1–11.Google Scholar
- (2000) Inference of population structure using multilocus genotype data. Genetics 155(2):945–959.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2019) Language models are unsupervised multitask learners. OpenAI Blog 1(8):9.Google Scholar
- (2024) Competition and diversity in generative AI. Preprint, submitted December 11, https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.08610.Google Scholar
- (2022) Revisiting meta-analytic estimates of validity in personnel selection: Addressing systematic overcorrection for restriction of range. J. Appl. Psych. 107(11):2040–2068.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2019) Using machine learning to translate applicant work history into predictors of performance and turnover. J. Appl. Psych. 104(10):1207–1225.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2021) Digital platform ecosystems: The coming context for AI. Pagani M, ed. Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Value Creation (Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, UK), 55–69.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (1998) The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: Practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. Psych. Bull. 124(2):262–274.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2019) Entrepreneurial uncertainty and expert evaluation: An empirical analysis. Management Sci. 66(3):1278–1299.Link, Google Scholar
- (1973) Job market signaling. Quart. J. Econom. 87(3):355–374.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (1956) Inadmissibility of the usual estimator for the mean of a multivariate normal distribution. Neyman J, ed. Proc. Third Berkeley Sympos. Math. Statist. Probab., vol. 1 (University of California Press, Cambridge University Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, London), 208.Google Scholar
- (2023) Costly mistakes: Why and when spelling errors in resumes jeopardise interview chances. PLoS One 18(4):e0283280.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2024) Beyond AI exposure: Which tasks are cost-effective to automate with computer vision? Preprint, submitted February 8, https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4700751.Google Scholar
- (2014) Big data investment, skills, and firm value. Management Sci. 60(6):1452–1469.Link, Google Scholar
- (2023) Ecosystem-level analysis of deployed machine learning reveals homogeneous outcomes. Oh A, Naumann T, Globerson A, Saenko K, Hardt M, Levine S, eds. Adv. Neural Inform. Processing Systems, vol. 36 (Neural Information Processing Systems Foundation, Inc., San Diego), 80772.Google Scholar
- (2023) AI and science: What 1,600 researchers think. Nature 621(7980):672–675.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2023) Here’s what happens when your lawyer uses ChatGPT. The New York Times Online (May 27), https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/27/nyregion/avianca-airline-lawsuit-chatgpt.html.Google Scholar
- (2022) Effects of using artificial intelligence on interpersonal perceptions of job applicants. Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Networking 25(3):163–168.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2023a) Algorithmic writing assistance on jobseekers’ resumes increases hires. NBER Working Paper No. 30886, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
- (2023b) Generative AI and labor market matching efficiency. Working paper, Boston University, Questrom School of Business, Boston.Google Scholar
- (2026) When local learning scales: Entrepreneurs’ initial users and market expansion. Organ. Sci. 37(1):377–401.Link, Google Scholar
- (2023a) Judging foreign startups. Strategic Management J. 44(9):2195–2225.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2023b) Open source software and global entrepreneurship. Res. Policy 52(9):104846.Crossref, Google Scholar

