Professor, Department of Economics and Darden School of Business, University of Virginia
Faculty Director, Economics of Transformative AI (EconTAI) Initiative
Nonresident Senior Fellow, Brookings and Peterson Institute
Research Associate, NBER and CEPR
Contact: econtai [at] virginia [dot] edu
Twitter: @akorinek
Anton is a Professor at the University of Virginia, Department of Economics and Darden School of Business as well as the Faculty Director of the Economics of Transformative AI (EconTAI) Initiative. He was named to the 2025 TIME100 AI list of the most influential people in artificial intelligence. He is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at Brookings and the Peterson Institute, a Research Associate at the NBER, a Research Fellow at the CEPR, and serves on Anthropic's Economic Advisory Council. Anton received his PhD from Columbia University in 2007 after several years of work experience in the IT and financial sectors. He has also worked at Johns Hopkins and at the University of Maryland and has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University, the World Bank, the IMF, the BIS and numerous central banks.
His research analyzes how to prepare for a world of transformative AI systems and has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, the Economist, and TIME Magazine. He investigates the implications of advanced AI for economic growth, labor markets, inequality, and the future of our society. In his past research, he investigated the mechanics of financial crises and developed policy measures to prevent future crises, including an influential framework for capital flow regulation in emerging economies.
**NEW** Named to TIME100 AI list of the most influential people in artificial intelligence (see also press release)
Sep 2025 Launched the Economics of Transformative AI (EconTAI) Initiative at the University of Virginia
Sep 2025 Organized NBER Economics of Transformative AI Workshop
Apr 2025 Appointed to Anthropic's Economic Advisory Council to advise on AI's economic impact
Dec 2024 Contributed to G7 High-Level Panel of Experts Report on "AI and Economic and Financial Policy Making"
Nov 2024 Selected in Vox's 2024 Future Perfect 50 list for my research on the economics of AGI
Apr 2024 Profile of my research on transformative AI published in TIME Magazine
Apr 2024 Publication of the Oxford Handbook of AI Governance (see Intro)
Nov 2023 My Testimony for the Senate's Bipartisan AI Insight Forum: Preparing the Workforce for an Uncertain AI Future
Dec 2021 Launched Coursera graduate course on the Economics of AI
When Does Automating AI Research Produce Explosive Growth? [PDF] with Tom Davidson, Basil Halperin, and Tom Houlden, Jan. 2026.
Examines when recursive self-improvement in AI leads to explosive growth and finds that the threshold for a growth take-off is within reachPublic Finance in the Age of AI: A Primer [PDF | Blog], with Lee Lockwood, forthcoming in NBER Volume on the Economics of Transformative AI, Jan. 2026.
Examines what to tax when AGI erodes the traditional tax bases of labor income and consumptionAI Agents for Economic Research [PDF], Update of "Generative AI for Economic Research," Journal of Economic Literature, Aug. 2025.
An introduction to demystify AI agents and a hands-on guide on how to employ them to accelerate economic researchSteering Technological Progress [PDF | Slides], with Joseph Stiglitz, updated, April 2025
Analyzes how to steer technological progress in directions that complement labor rather than displacing it - cited by The Economist's Free ExchangeEconomic Policy Challenges for the Age of AI [PDF | Deep Dive Podcast (11min)], forthcoming in Rethinking Economic Policy: Steering Structural Change, MIT Press, 2025.
Discusses the paradigm shift that the Age of AI will generate and examines the resulting challenges for economics and economic policyConcentrating Intelligence: Scaling and Market Structure in Artificial Intelligence [Publication | INET WP | Blog], with Jai Vipra, Economic Policy 40(121), pp. 225-256, Jan. 2025.
Examines market concentration in AI, the potential for market tipping, and the risks from vertical integrationIntelligent financial system: how AI is transforming finance [BIS Working Paper | X Thread | LM Podcast (15min)], with Iñaki Aldasoro et al., Jun. 2024.
Analyzes how AI Agents and AGI will transform four main functions of the financial system, examines the risk of disruption, and evaluates regulatory responsesScenarios for the Transition to AGI [PDF | Slides], with Donghyun Suh, Mar. 2024.
Analyzes what the transition to artificial general intelligence would imply for output and wagesPreparing for the (Non-Existent?) Future of Work [WP | Publication], with Megan Juelfs, Oxford Handbook of AI Governance, pp. 746-776, Apr. 2024
If transformative AI makes human labor redundant, what are the economic and social implications, and how can we prepare for it?Scenario Planning for an A(G)I Future [Link | PDF], IMF Finance & Development Magazine 60(4), pp. 30-33, Dec. 2023
Makes the case that economists and policymakers need to prepare for the possibility of human-level artificial intelligenceAI's Economic Peril to Democracy [PDF | Publication], with Stephanie A. Bell, Journal of Democracy, Oct. 2023
Examines how AI could erode democracy by amplifying inequality and offers countervailing solutionsIntegrating Ethical Values and Economic Value to Steer Progress in Artificial Intelligence [Publication | WP], in Markus Dubber et al. (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, Oxford University Press, July 2020
Complementing market incentives with ethical values is crucial to steer progress in AI in a direction that is beneficial for humanity at large