45 Quotes by David Autor

I work a lot on skill demands and changes in labor markets having to do with technology and with trade as well.

I did a lot of blue collar work. I also worked as a temp. I did, you know, light construction and cleaning. I did clerical temping. I also fix cars and motorcycles and electronics.

I did software development for a while, and I also spent several years directing a nonprofit in San Francisco that did computer education for the poor. I also did a lot of work in fast food.

I think we labor economists like to think of ourselves as being closer to the people.

History has suggested that the pessimists have been wrong time and time again.

Workers are basically supervisors of machines.

I'm a professor of economics and associate head of the MIT Department of Economics.

There's never been a better time to be a worker with special skills or the right education, because these people can use technology to create and capture value.

There is no question we are in an era of people asking, 'Is the Robocalypse upon us?