3 free resources on this topic. Everything here is free and hand-picked. You can also search within this topic.
Peer-reviewed study using German panel data on life satisfaction. It finds unemployment lowers wellbeing far beyond the effect of the lost income itself — work also provides social relationships, identity and self-esteem. Published in Economica, 1998.
Research page of labour economist Kory Kantenga, with papers on labour markets, hiring and how technology changes work.
Why I recommend it: Academic papers — skim the abstracts first. Some linked journal versions may be paywalled; working-paper versions are usually free.
The underlying working paper by Jeremy Yang and co-authors, using Perplexity data to model tasks as discrete steps and compare fixed vs. marginal costs of chatbots versus autonomous agents.
Why I recommend it: If the HBS summary hooks you, go to the source. Skim the task-cost framework and use it to audit your own week: which tasks are high-step and repeatable? Those are the ones to hand to an agent first.
