arXiv subjects

Lindsey Raymond

Publications and source records attributed to Lindsey Raymond.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

The Market Effects of Algorithms

While there is excitement about the potential for algorithms to optimize individual decision-making, changes in individual behavior will, almost inevitably, impact markets. Yet little is known about such effects. In this paper, I study how the availability of algorithmic prediction changes entry, allocation, and prices in the US single-family housing market, a key driver of household wealth. I identify a market-level natural experiment that generates variation in the cost of using algorithms to value houses: digitization, the transition from physical to digital housing records. I show that digitization leads to entry by investors using algorithms, but does not push out investors using human judgment. Instead, human investors shift toward houses that are difficult to predict algorithmically. Algorithmic investors predominantly purchase minority-owned homes, a segment of the market where humans may be biased. Digitization increases the average sale price of minority-owned homes by 5% and reduces racial disparities in home prices by 45%. Algorithmic investors, via competition, affect the prices paid by owner-occupiers and human investors for minority homes; such changes drive the majority of the reduction in racial disparities. The decrease in racial inequality underscores the potential for algorithms to mitigate human biases at the market level.

econ.GN↗

arXiv2024

Hiring as Exploration

This paper views hiring as a contextual bandit problem: to find the best workers over time, firms must balance exploitation (selecting from groups with proven track records) with exploration (selecting from under-represented groups to learn about quality). Yet modern hiring algorithms, based on supervised learning approaches, are designed solely for exploitation. Instead, we build a resume screening algorithm that values exploration by evaluating candidates according to their statistical upside potential. Using data from professional services recruiting within a Fortune 500 firm, we show that this approach improves the quality (as measured by eventual hiring rates) of candidates selected for an interview, while also increasing demographic diversity, relative to the firm's existing practices. The same is not true for traditional supervised learning based algorithms, which improve hiring rates but select far fewer Black and Hispanic applicants. Together, our results highlight the importance of incorporating exploration in developing decision-making algorithms that are potentially both more efficient and equitable.

econ.GN↗

arXiv2023

Generative AI at Work

We study the staggered introduction of a generative AI-based conversational assistant using data from 5,172 customer support agents. Access to AI assistance increases worker productivity, as measured by issues resolved per hour, by 15\% on average, with substantial heterogeneity across workers. Less experienced and lower-skilled workers improve both the speed and quality of their output while the most experienced and highest-skilled workers see small gains in speed and small declines in quality. We also find evidence that AI assistance facilitates worker learning and improves English fluency, particularly among international agents. While AI systems improve with more training data, we find that the gains from AI adoption are largest for relatively rare problems, where human agents have less baseline training and experience. Finally, we provide evidence that AI assistance improves the experience of work along two key dimensions: customers are more polite and less likely to ask to speak to a manager.

econ.GN↗