Fiona Chen
I am a Ph.D. candidate in Business Economics at Harvard University. My research is in labor and personnel economics, on the impacts of AI and organizational decisions.
I am on the 2026-2027 job market.
Previously, I was a visiting student at the Stanford Digital Economy Lab. I received my B.S. in Mathematics and in Economics from MIT.
I served as a Trustee of MIT and a Research Fellow at the Social Finance Institute, on practitioner-oriented research about the economic impacts of AI.
My work is supported by the Stripe Economics of AI Fellowship, Schmidt Sciences AI at Work Program, Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship, and Stone Fellowship in Inequality and Wealth Concentration.
Artificial Intelligence in the Firm: Bottlenecks in Software Production
Job Market Paper
with James Stratton, August 2026
Wall Street Journal
Economist
Harvard Stone
Jellyfish 1
Jellyfish 2
OECD
Task Assignment and Career Advancement
with James Stratton, October 2026
Connecting Online: The Effects of Social Interaction on Academic Performance
Undergraduate Thesis, May 2021
AI as a Career Advisor
with Katelyn Cranney and Leo Saenger
Shaping the Future of Work: Generative AI, Inequality, and Opportunity
December 2025
Social Finance Institute, Workplace and Economic Mobility Papers
MIT Values Statement
with Daniel Hastings, Tracy Gabridge, and many others, March 2022
Statement
Announcement
The Tech
I have taught a number of courses at the undergraduate and graduate level.
Labor Economics
Harvard, ECON 980B Education in the Economy (UG)
with Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz, Spring 2024
Harvard, ECON 2330 History and Human Capital (Ph.D.)
with Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz, Spring 2024
Harvard, ECON 980X The Economics of Work and Family (UG)
with Claudia Goldin, Fall 2023
Econometrics
Harvard Medical School, Causal Inference in Economics and Medicine (MD)
with Joshua Angrist, Fall 2025
Harvard, Math Camp: Econometrics (Ph.D.)
with Jennifer Walsh, Summer 2023
Other
MIT, 14.75 Political Economy and Economic Development (UG)
with Benjamin Olken, Spring 2021
MIT, 14.13 Psychology and Economics (UG)
with Frank Schilbach and Dmitry Taubinsky, Fall 2020