Google is doubling down on the economics of artificial intelligence by recruiting heavyweights from academia and policy. The tech giant announced the expansion of its AI & Economy Research Program, bringing in 2025 Nobel Laureate in Economics Philippe Aghion as an Academic Advisor. He joins existing advisors like Michael Spence and Dame Diane Coyle. This isn’t just a vanity hire. Google wants rigorous economic modeling to track how AI drives innovation-led growth and creative destruction over the long term.
The hiring spree doesn’t stop at advisory roles. Anu Madgavkar, formerly a Partner at the McKinsey Global Institute, joins as a Director of the research program. She brings two decades of experience studying labor markets and technology adoption. Working alongside her is Daniel Rock, an economist from the Wharton School who has co-authored foundational papers on technological transitions. Rock will focus on bridging frontier model telemetry with econometrics to analyze enterprise productivity. Ajay Agrawal, a Professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, enters as a Visiting Fellow to collaborate with MIT’s David Autor on AI’s impact on scientific discovery.
This move signals a shift from vague speculation to data-driven accountability. Google recently launched the AI & Economy ATLAS v1.0, an interactive site tracking how people use its AI tools. But tracking adoption is only the first step. The new team will focus on global technology diffusion, small business ecosystems, and the workforce impacts of generative AI. By combining fine-grained usage data with high-level economic theory, Google aims to inform public policy frameworks and training programs.
Critics often argue that big tech companies study AI impacts only to soften regulatory blows. Yet, the caliber of these hires suggests a genuine attempt to understand the macroeconomic trajectory of generative models. If AI truly reshapes labor as drastically as predicted, we need more than just anecdotal evidence. We need the kind of rigorous inquiry Aghion and Madgavkar are known for. The real test will be whether Google publishes findings that challenge its own commercial interests.
