Robert Seamans

Biography

Robert Seamans is Professor of Management at New York University’s (NYU) Stern School of Business where he teaches courses in game theory and strategy.

Professor Seamans’ research focuses on how firms use technology in their strategic interactions with each other, and also focuses on the economic consequences of AI, robotics and other advanced technologies.

His research has been published in leading academic journals and been cited in numerous outlets including The Atlantic, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and others.

Professor Seamans is also Director of the Center for the Future of Management.

In 2015, Professor Seamans was appointed as the Senior Economist for technology and innovation on President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers.

ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS (Selected)

Erik Brynjolfsson, Catherine Buffington, Nathan Goldschlag, Frank Li, Javier Miranda and Robert Seamans. 2025. The Characteristics and Geographic Distribution of Robot Hubs in U.S. Manufacturing Establishments. AEA Papers & Proceedings, 115.

Frank Nagle, Robert Seamans and Steve Tadelis. Forthcoming. Transaction Cost Economics in the Digital Economy: A Research Agenda. Strategic Organization.

Edward Felten, Manav Raj and Robert Seamans. 2024. Occupational Heterogeneity in Exposure to Generative AI. Communications of the ACM, 67(8): 29-32.

Qiren Liu, Sen Luo and Robert Seamans. 2024. Pain or Anxiety? The Health Consequence of Robot Adoption in China. Economics Letters. 236 (March 2024): 111582.

Eunhee Sohn, Robert Seamans and Daniel Sands. 2024. Technological Opportunity and the Locus of Innovation: Airmail, Aircraft, and Local Capabilities. Strategic Management Journal, 45(1): 3-35.

Justin Berg, Manav Raj and Robert Seamans. 2023. Capturing Value from Artificial Intelligence. Academy of Management Discoveries, 9(4): 424-428.

Rachel Atkins, Pablo Hernandez-Lagos, Cristian Jara-Figueroa and Robert Seamans. 2023. What is the Impact of Opportunity Zones on Job Postings? Journal of Urban Economics, 136: 103545

Erik Brynjolfsson, Catherine Buffington, Nathan Goldschlag, Frank Li, Javier Miranda and Robert Seamans. 2023. Robot Hubs: The Skewed Distribution of Robots in U.S. Manufacturing AEA Papers & Proceedings, 113: 215-218.

Colombari, Ruggero, Aldo Geuna, Susan Helper, Raphael Martins, Emilio Paolucci, Riccardo Ricci, and Robert Seamans. 2023. The interplay between data-driven decision-making and digitalization: A firm-level survey of the Italian and US automotive industries. International Journal of Production Economics 255: 108718.

James Bessen, Michael Impink and Robert Seamans. 2022. The Role of Data for AI Startup Growth. Research Policy, 51(5): 104513

Rachel Atkins, Lisa Cook and Robert Seamans. 2022. Discrimination in Lending? Evidence from the Paycheck Protection Program. Small Business Economics, 58(2): 843-865.

Rachel Atkins, Lisa Cook and Robert Seamans. 2022. Using Technology to Tackle Discrimination in Lending. AEA Papers & Proceedings, 112: 296-298.

James Bessen, Michael Impink and Robert Seamans. 2022. The Cost of Ethical AI Development for Startups. Proceedings of 2022 ACM Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Society

Ed Felten, Manav Raj and Robert Seamans. 2021. Occupational, Industry, and Geographic Exposure to Artificial Intelligence: A Novel Dataset and Its Potential Uses. Strategic Management Journal, 42(12): 2195-2217.

Education

Ph.D. Business Administration, University of California, Berkeley

M.A. Economics, Boston University

M.B.A Business, Yale University

B.A. English, Reed College

Positions Held

New York University, Stern School of Business (2009 - Present)

White House Council of Economic Advisers (2015 – 2016)

Accenture Research, Thought Leadership Advisory Council (2020 - Present)

Brookings Institution, Non-Resident Senior Fellow (2022 - Present)

Brookings Institution, Member of the Productivity Measurement Initiative (2018 - Present)

Center for Democracy & Technology, Non-resident Fellow (2022 - 2023)

Princeton University Affiliate at the Center for IT Policy (2018 - 2019)

Research Interests

AI & Robots

Entrepreneurship

Innovation

Game Theory

Strategy

Technology