Alex Imas
@aleximas.bsky.social
Economics + Applied AI, Prof at University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Formerly: Carnegie Mellon, UCSD, Northwestern.
Website: www.aleximas.com
Website: www.aleximas.com
Pinned
Alex Imas
@aleximas.bsky.social
· Dec 15
We've significantly updated our paper on modeling + measuring systemic discrimination! Check it out:
www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ab5yx...
(cc @aleximas.bsky.social + @aislinnbohren.bsky.social!)
A short 🧵 on what's new...
www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ab5yx...
(cc @aleximas.bsky.social + @aislinnbohren.bsky.social!)
A short 🧵 on what's new...
🚨Huge update to our paper on modeling & measuring systemic discrimination🚨
New more structural framework that is closely tied to applications + measurement
New measurement section on methodology for identifying direct, systemic & total discrimination
Two new field studies demonstrating tools. 1/2
New more structural framework that is closely tied to applications + measurement
New measurement section on methodology for identifying direct, systemic & total discrimination
Two new field studies demonstrating tools. 1/2
Reposted by Alex Imas
Happy pub day to THE WINNER'S CURSE by @rthaler.bsky.social + @aleximas.bsky.social!
The original (1992) version of this book changed my life -- it's the reason I study judgment and decision making. For a preview of the new edition, check out my Q&A w/ the authors t.co/n3ThOxpJak
The original (1992) version of this book changed my life -- it's the reason I study judgment and decision making. For a preview of the new edition, check out my Q&A w/ the authors t.co/n3ThOxpJak
October 21, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Happy pub day to THE WINNER'S CURSE by @rthaler.bsky.social + @aleximas.bsky.social!
The original (1992) version of this book changed my life -- it's the reason I study judgment and decision making. For a preview of the new edition, check out my Q&A w/ the authors t.co/n3ThOxpJak
The original (1992) version of this book changed my life -- it's the reason I study judgment and decision making. For a preview of the new edition, check out my Q&A w/ the authors t.co/n3ThOxpJak
Reposted by Alex Imas
Next was a great discussion with @aleximas.bsky.social and Richard Thaler on changing perspectives around behavioral economics anomalies at the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy & Finance www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v8O... (6/7)
Alex Imas and Richard Thaler on Behavioral Economics Anomalies: Then and Now
YouTube video by Markus' Academy
www.youtube.com
October 10, 2025 at 2:53 AM
Next was a great discussion with @aleximas.bsky.social and Richard Thaler on changing perspectives around behavioral economics anomalies at the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy & Finance www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v8O... (6/7)
Reposted by Alex Imas
ONE WEEK! The Society for Neuroecon conference is in Cambridge, MA in 1 week!
We are thrilled to have @amberalhadeff.bsky.social and @aleximas.bsky.social as the speakers for our neuroscience and social/decision science workshops
neuroeconomics.org/workshops/
We are thrilled to have @amberalhadeff.bsky.social and @aleximas.bsky.social as the speakers for our neuroscience and social/decision science workshops
neuroeconomics.org/workshops/
Workshops - Society For Neuroeconomics
neuroeconomics.org
September 26, 2025 at 4:09 AM
ONE WEEK! The Society for Neuroecon conference is in Cambridge, MA in 1 week!
We are thrilled to have @amberalhadeff.bsky.social and @aleximas.bsky.social as the speakers for our neuroscience and social/decision science workshops
neuroeconomics.org/workshops/
We are thrilled to have @amberalhadeff.bsky.social and @aleximas.bsky.social as the speakers for our neuroscience and social/decision science workshops
neuroeconomics.org/workshops/
Reposted by Alex Imas
‼️Event Alert‼️ Join @angeladuckworth.bsky.social & @katymilkman.bsky.social for a conversation with Nobel Prize winning economist @rthaler.bsky.social and Professor @aleximas.bsky.social about their new book, The Winner’s Curse.
📅 Thurs, Oct 23 | 4-5PM
📍 Huntsman Hall G06
📩RSVP: bit.ly/4nbI9EG
📅 Thurs, Oct 23 | 4-5PM
📍 Huntsman Hall G06
📩RSVP: bit.ly/4nbI9EG
September 29, 2025 at 1:44 PM
‼️Event Alert‼️ Join @angeladuckworth.bsky.social & @katymilkman.bsky.social for a conversation with Nobel Prize winning economist @rthaler.bsky.social and Professor @aleximas.bsky.social about their new book, The Winner’s Curse.
📅 Thurs, Oct 23 | 4-5PM
📍 Huntsman Hall G06
📩RSVP: bit.ly/4nbI9EG
📅 Thurs, Oct 23 | 4-5PM
📍 Huntsman Hall G06
📩RSVP: bit.ly/4nbI9EG
Reposted by Alex Imas
Why do students lie about using AI?
Chicago Booth's @aleximas.bsky.social talks about perceptions of AI use in the classroom.
www.chicagobooth.edu/review/podca... #econsky
Chicago Booth's @aleximas.bsky.social talks about perceptions of AI use in the classroom.
www.chicagobooth.edu/review/podca... #econsky
Why Students Lie About Using AI
Chicago Booth’s Alex Imas talks about perceptions of AI use in the classroom.
www.chicagobooth.edu
August 14, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Why do students lie about using AI?
Chicago Booth's @aleximas.bsky.social talks about perceptions of AI use in the classroom.
www.chicagobooth.edu/review/podca... #econsky
Chicago Booth's @aleximas.bsky.social talks about perceptions of AI use in the classroom.
www.chicagobooth.edu/review/podca... #econsky
Reposted by Alex Imas
#QJE Aug 2025, #2, “Systemic Discrimination: Theory and Measurement,” by Bohren, Hull (@instrumenthull.bsky.social), and Imas (@aleximas.bsky.social): doi.org/10.1093/qje/...
Systemic Discrimination: Theory and Measurement*
Abstract. Economists often measure discrimination as disparities arising from the direct effects of group identity. We develop new tools to model and measu
doi.org
July 14, 2025 at 3:06 PM
#QJE Aug 2025, #2, “Systemic Discrimination: Theory and Measurement,” by Bohren, Hull (@instrumenthull.bsky.social), and Imas (@aleximas.bsky.social): doi.org/10.1093/qje/...
Reposted by Alex Imas
Congrats to all faculty who have been recognized for their stellar contributions!
We're especially thrilled to celebrate the eleven Chicago Booth faculty on this list, among them CAAI Faculty Affiliate @aleximas.bsky.social!
news.uchicago.edu/story/twenty...?
We're especially thrilled to celebrate the eleven Chicago Booth faculty on this list, among them CAAI Faculty Affiliate @aleximas.bsky.social!
news.uchicago.edu/story/twenty...?
Twenty-six UChicago faculty members receive named, distinguished service professorships in July 2025
news.uchicago.edu
July 2, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Congrats to all faculty who have been recognized for their stellar contributions!
We're especially thrilled to celebrate the eleven Chicago Booth faculty on this list, among them CAAI Faculty Affiliate @aleximas.bsky.social!
news.uchicago.edu/story/twenty...?
We're especially thrilled to celebrate the eleven Chicago Booth faculty on this list, among them CAAI Faculty Affiliate @aleximas.bsky.social!
news.uchicago.edu/story/twenty...?
Reposted by Alex Imas
Paper by @aislinnbohren.bsky.social @instrumenthull.bsky.social and @aleximas.bsky.social on Systemic Discrimination now published in QJE
academic.oup.com/qje/article/...
academic.oup.com/qje/article/...
Systemic Discrimination: Theory and Measurement*
Abstract. Economists often measure discrimination as disparities arising from the direct effects of group identity. We develop new tools to model and measu
academic.oup.com
July 10, 2025 at 8:36 AM
Paper by @aislinnbohren.bsky.social @instrumenthull.bsky.social and @aleximas.bsky.social on Systemic Discrimination now published in QJE
academic.oup.com/qje/article/...
academic.oup.com/qje/article/...
Reposted by Alex Imas
AI can be overconfident.
So a team of researchers came up with a solution: Give AI a way to evaluate and calibrate its own uncertainty, allowing a user to decide how much to trust a prediction. www.chicagobooth.edu/review/how-a...
So a team of researchers came up with a solution: Give AI a way to evaluate and calibrate its own uncertainty, allowing a user to decide how much to trust a prediction. www.chicagobooth.edu/review/how-a...
How AI Can Make Smarter Predictions
Researchers gave AI a way to evaluate and calibrate its own uncertainty.
www.chicagobooth.edu
June 4, 2025 at 5:11 PM
AI can be overconfident.
So a team of researchers came up with a solution: Give AI a way to evaluate and calibrate its own uncertainty, allowing a user to decide how much to trust a prediction. www.chicagobooth.edu/review/how-a...
So a team of researchers came up with a solution: Give AI a way to evaluate and calibrate its own uncertainty, allowing a user to decide how much to trust a prediction. www.chicagobooth.edu/review/how-a...
Reposted by Alex Imas
The gutting of US biomedical research with loss of ~2,500 grants affecting research for cancer, Alzheimer’s, infectious disease, global health and much more
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
June 4, 2025 at 2:03 PM
The gutting of US biomedical research with loss of ~2,500 grants affecting research for cancer, Alzheimer’s, infectious disease, global health and much more
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Reposted by Alex Imas
"You need some way of actually measuring people’s beliefs or their preferences if you wanna test these behavioral stories around bubbles," says Chicago Booth’s Leland Bybee. www.chicagobooth.edu/review/in-it... #econsky #ai
In Its Expectations for the Economy, AI Is Surprisingly Human
AI, designed to mimic the appearance of human reasoning, also forms predictions about the economy in human-like ways.
www.chicagobooth.edu
May 29, 2025 at 5:17 PM
"You need some way of actually measuring people’s beliefs or their preferences if you wanna test these behavioral stories around bubbles," says Chicago Booth’s Leland Bybee. www.chicagobooth.edu/review/in-it... #econsky #ai
Reposted by Alex Imas
Our work now published showing how better AI can improve both accuracy and diversity in hiring relative to supervised learning tools and status-quo human hiring.
Li, @lindseyraymond.bsky.social & @peterbergman.bsky.social show that incorporating exploration into an interview screening algorithm improves demographic diversity & hiring efficiency, while traditional supervised learning-only tools improve hiring rates at the expense of minority applicants.
👇
👇
June 2, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Our work now published showing how better AI can improve both accuracy and diversity in hiring relative to supervised learning tools and status-quo human hiring.
Reposted by Alex Imas
The interesting thing about people dragging the folks in that NYT piece who said that they didn’t vote for moms to get deported is that the article is about how these women are organizing for a member of their community, aggressively and openly, and actually, that’s good.
June 1, 2025 at 2:58 PM
The interesting thing about people dragging the folks in that NYT piece who said that they didn’t vote for moms to get deported is that the article is about how these women are organizing for a member of their community, aggressively and openly, and actually, that’s good.
Reposted by Alex Imas
Update on the paper: www.wsj.com/tech/ai/mit-...
MIT Says It No Longer Stands Behind Student’s AI Research Paper
The university said it has no confidence in a widely circulated paper by an economics graduate student.
www.wsj.com
May 16, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Update on the paper: www.wsj.com/tech/ai/mit-...
Reposted by Alex Imas
Introspection has gotten a bad rap over the years. Here we show that people have more insight into the algorithms behind their decisions than we tend to assume. Thrilled to see this work out at Nature Comms with the always brilliant @thatadammorris.bsky.social!
Are we “strangers to ourselves”? Classic theories say people have limited insight into how they decide. Our new paper at @natcomms.nature.com challenges this view. With @rcarl.bsky.social sky.social, @hedykober.bsky.social y.social, and @mjcrockett.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧵
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧵
Introspective access to value-based multi-attribute choice processes - Nature Communications
People routinely choose between multi-attribute options, such as which movie to watch. Here, the authors show people often have accurate insight into their choices, challenging the notion that people ...
www.nature.com
May 1, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Introspection has gotten a bad rap over the years. Here we show that people have more insight into the algorithms behind their decisions than we tend to assume. Thrilled to see this work out at Nature Comms with the always brilliant @thatadammorris.bsky.social!
Reposted by Alex Imas
This is cool for, like, other people who have actually used AI... not me, nope.
🚨New paper (link in reply)🚨
Are we underestimating AI use in self-report surveys?
Yes, by as much as 30 percentage pts. We find 60% self-reported vs. truth closer to ~90% (!!)
Why? Social desirability bias, people embarrassed/worried to admit AI use, so they underreport 🧵
Are we underestimating AI use in self-report surveys?
Yes, by as much as 30 percentage pts. We find 60% self-reported vs. truth closer to ~90% (!!)
Why? Social desirability bias, people embarrassed/worried to admit AI use, so they underreport 🧵
April 30, 2025 at 12:45 AM
This is cool for, like, other people who have actually used AI... not me, nope.
🚨New paper (link in reply)🚨
Are we underestimating AI use in self-report surveys?
Yes, by as much as 30 percentage pts. We find 60% self-reported vs. truth closer to ~90% (!!)
Why? Social desirability bias, people embarrassed/worried to admit AI use, so they underreport 🧵
Are we underestimating AI use in self-report surveys?
Yes, by as much as 30 percentage pts. We find 60% self-reported vs. truth closer to ~90% (!!)
Why? Social desirability bias, people embarrassed/worried to admit AI use, so they underreport 🧵
April 29, 2025 at 9:36 PM
🚨New paper (link in reply)🚨
Are we underestimating AI use in self-report surveys?
Yes, by as much as 30 percentage pts. We find 60% self-reported vs. truth closer to ~90% (!!)
Why? Social desirability bias, people embarrassed/worried to admit AI use, so they underreport 🧵
Are we underestimating AI use in self-report surveys?
Yes, by as much as 30 percentage pts. We find 60% self-reported vs. truth closer to ~90% (!!)
Why? Social desirability bias, people embarrassed/worried to admit AI use, so they underreport 🧵
Reposted by Alex Imas
Yes, Bluesky is full of ill-informed AI takes. But that doesn’t have to matter at all. The news you need is out there.
In addition to the filters recommended here, I recommend … +
In addition to the filters recommended here, I recommend … +
I wrote something up for AI people who want to get into bluesky and either couldn't assemble an exciting feed or gave up doomscrolling when their Following feed switched to talking politics 24/7.
The AI Researcher's Guide to a Non-Boring Bluesky Feed | Naomi Saphra
How to migrate to bsky without a boring feed.
nsaphra.net
April 26, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Yes, Bluesky is full of ill-informed AI takes. But that doesn’t have to matter at all. The news you need is out there.
In addition to the filters recommended here, I recommend … +
In addition to the filters recommended here, I recommend … +
Reposted by Alex Imas
Encourage your students to submit posters and register! Limited free housing is provided for student participants only, on a first-come (i.e., request)-first-serve basis.
We are also actively looking for sponsors. Reach out if you are interested!
Please repost! Help spread the words!
We are also actively looking for sponsors. Reach out if you are interested!
Please repost! Help spread the words!
The Midwest Machine Learning Symposium will happen in Chicago on June 23-4 on the University of Chicago campus (midwest-ml.org/2025/). We have an amazing lineup of speakers:@profsanjeevarora.bsky.social from Princeton, Heng Ji from UIUC, Tuomas Sandholm from CMU, @ravenben.bsky.social from UChicago.
April 21, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Encourage your students to submit posters and register! Limited free housing is provided for student participants only, on a first-come (i.e., request)-first-serve basis.
We are also actively looking for sponsors. Reach out if you are interested!
Please repost! Help spread the words!
We are also actively looking for sponsors. Reach out if you are interested!
Please repost! Help spread the words!
Just so it’s clear, the government wanted to oversee hiring and employment at a *private* institution in order to implement a purity test. When the institution refused, they took away money for life saving research (cancer etc).
That’s some fascist shit.
That’s some fascist shit.
April 15, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Just so it’s clear, the government wanted to oversee hiring and employment at a *private* institution in order to implement a purity test. When the institution refused, they took away money for life saving research (cancer etc).
That’s some fascist shit.
That’s some fascist shit.
The algorithm knows me better than I know myself
April 14, 2025 at 9:50 PM
The algorithm knows me better than I know myself
Reposted by Alex Imas
The profession really benefits from having Ivan in it
How Tariffs Affect Trade Deficits...
... a new paper with amazing trade economist Arnaud Costinot.
Many politicians and the general public expect tariffs to reduce imports lower imports and thus work to close a trade deficit.
Economists typically say "not so fast"...
🧵1/n
... a new paper with amazing trade economist Arnaud Costinot.
Many politicians and the general public expect tariffs to reduce imports lower imports and thus work to close a trade deficit.
Economists typically say "not so fast"...
🧵1/n
April 14, 2025 at 5:41 PM
The profession really benefits from having Ivan in it
At Passover Seder yesterday, the host asked “what makes people slaves”. His 5 year old son said “money, because then you have to sit there counting it all day instead of having fun.”
People mostly laughed, but I’ve been thinking about it ever since.
People mostly laughed, but I’ve been thinking about it ever since.
April 14, 2025 at 1:40 AM
At Passover Seder yesterday, the host asked “what makes people slaves”. His 5 year old son said “money, because then you have to sit there counting it all day instead of having fun.”
People mostly laughed, but I’ve been thinking about it ever since.
People mostly laughed, but I’ve been thinking about it ever since.
Reposted by Alex Imas
The Formulator Force is the 80s rebrand of total factor productivity.
April 13, 2025 at 8:04 PM
The Formulator Force is the 80s rebrand of total factor productivity.
Promised my kid that I had saved all my amazing transformer toys at his grandparent’s house. Opened the box only to find this:
Wtf is a formulator force.
It also broke the second I touched it.
Tears were shed.
Wtf is a formulator force.
It also broke the second I touched it.
Tears were shed.
April 13, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Promised my kid that I had saved all my amazing transformer toys at his grandparent’s house. Opened the box only to find this:
Wtf is a formulator force.
It also broke the second I touched it.
Tears were shed.
Wtf is a formulator force.
It also broke the second I touched it.
Tears were shed.