Public Lecture: "Bots & Tots"

Abstract: There have been many attempts to forecast the impact of automation on the demand for (human) labor in the next few decades. I describe some of the issues involved in making these forecasts and then go on to look at the supply side of the labor market and how this interacts with the demand side.

Bio: Hal R. Varian is the Chief Economist at Google. He started in May 2002 as a consultant and has been involved in many aspects of the company, including auction design, econometric, finance, corporate strategy and public policy. He is also an emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley in three departments: business, economics, and information management. He received his S.B. degree from MIT in 1969 and his MA and Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1973. Professor Varian has published numerous papers in economic theory, econometrics, industrial organization, public finance, and the economics of information technology.