Laurence Ales

Associate Professor Carnegie Mellon University

  • Pittsburgh PA

Laurence Ales' research interests include macroeconomics, optimal taxation, and contract theory.

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Carnegie Mellon University

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Biography

Laurence Ales' research focuses on the study of inequality and the design of tax policy. His recent work studies the impact that future disruptive technologies will have on labor markets and determines the best response of policy makers. His work also explores optimal taxation, especially of the very wealthy.

Areas of Expertise

Disruptive Technologies
Tax Policy
Economics
Optimal Taxation
Macroeconomics
Contract Theory
Labor Markets

Media Appearances

Why can’t the Fed just burn some money to stop inflation?

Marketplace.org  online

2022-09-23

The Fed can get money back in two ways, said Laurence Ales, an associate professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University. One is by selling you something, like Treasuries. These are loans that you are making to the government in return for interest payments.

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Five industries affected by automation right now

Yahoo Finance  online

2021-09-17

Amazon’s huge scale makes robotics a tempting proposition. “We find that large firms are more likely to automate low- to middle-skill tasks. The reason for this is that a large retailer such as Amazon can keep a machine busy and use it to its full potential, something that a smaller retailer cannot,” explains Laurence Ales, associate professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business.

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Time for Tax Cuts? ‘Trickle-down Economics’ Vs. ‘spillover Effects’

American Enterprise Institute  online

2017-01-03

One perspective can found over at the American Economic Association blog where Chris Fleisher features a Q&A with Carrnegie Mellon University economists Laurence Ales and Christopher Sleet. Their recent American Economic Review paper argues that the the marginal tax rate on top earning CEOs should be closer to 20% vs. the current top tax rate of 40%.

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Social

Industry Expertise

Research
Education/Learning
Writing and Editing

Accomplishments

Christopher Freeman and Richard R. Nelson Prize

2023

Richard M. Cyert Award for Excellence in Teaching

2023

Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University

Favorite MBA Professors Of The Class Of 2021

2021

Poets & Quants

Education

University of Minnesota

Ph.D.

Economics

2008

University of Minnesota

M.S.

Economics

2007

University of Rome – Tor Vergata

B.S.

Physics

2002

Affiliations

  • Macroeconomic Dynamics : Associate Editor
  • Carnegie-Rochester-NYU Conference on Public Policy : Advisory Board Member

Languages

  • English
  • Italian

Event Appearances

How It’s Made: A General Theory of the Labor Implications of Technological Change

2020 US Census  

How It’s Made: A General Theory of the Labor Implications of Technological Change

2021 SED  Minneapolis, MN

Optimal Taxation of Income-Generating Choice

2020 Econometric Society World Congress  Zoom

Articles

Optimal Taxation of Income-Generating Choice

Econometrica

2022

Discrete location, occupation, skill, and hours choices of workers underpin their incomes. This paper analyzes the optimal taxation of discrete income-generating choice. It derives optimal tax equations and Pareto test inequalities for mixed logit choice environments that can accommodate discrete and unstructured choice sets, rich preference heterogeneity, and complex aggregate cross-substitution patterns between choices.

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Innovation Tournaments with Multiple Contributors

Production and Operations Management

2020

This study examines innovation tournaments in which an organizer seeks solutions to an innovation-related problem from a number of agents. Agents exert effort to improve their solutions but face uncertainty about their solution performance. The organizer is interested in obtaining multiple solutions—agents whose solutions contribute to the organizer’s utility are called contributors.

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Innovation and Crowdsourcing Contests

Sharing Economy

2019

In an innovation contest, an organizer seeks solutions to an innovation-related problem from a group of independent agents. Agents, who can be heterogeneous in their ability levels, exert efforts to improve their solutions, and their solution qualities are uncertain due to the innovation and evaluation processes.

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