2026, Methods Lecture, Melissa Dell and Ashesh Rambachan, "Estimation and Inference with AI-Generated Data"
Presenters
Research Associate Melissa Dell of Harvard University and Ashesh Rambachan of MIT delivered the 2026 Methods Lectures on "Estimation and Inference with AI-Generated Data." They described both the rapidly expanding ways in which large language models and other AI tools are being used for economic measurement, as well as the new econometric issues that are presented by the analysis of these data. Their lectures provided an overview of the theory underlying some of the new econometric tools and illustrated their application in several different settings.
Background Reading
Melissa Dell, Deep Learning for Economists
Jens Ludwig, Sendhil Mullainathan & Ashesh Rambachan, Large Language Models: An Applied Econometric Framework
Jens Ludwig & Sendhil Mullainathan, Machine Learning as a Tool for Hypothesis Generation
Jacob Carlson & Melissa Dell, A Unifying Framework for Robust and Efficient Inference with Unstructured Data
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