Editors: Alberto Bisin (New York University: alberto.bisin@nyu.edu) and Elliott Ash (ETH Zurich: ashe@ethz.ch)
Artificial intelligence is transforming the toolkit of applied economists. By extracting information from text, images, audio, and other unstructured sources, AI techniques now permit fine-grained measurement of behaviors, expectations, and market dynamics that elude traditional approaches to measurement and data analysis. These new inputs promise to open up new areas and activities for empirical analysis across both micro- and macro-economics. As AI measures become increasingly accurate and scalable, they can illuminate long-standing questions about productivity, inequality, policy effectiveness, and economic resilience.
This special issue seeks papers that apply AI-based measurement to advance substantive economic research. Suitable contributions will draw on methods such as large-scale text analysis, machine learning classification and prediction, computer vision, or audio signal processing to construct novel, policy-relevant economic indicators or to address substantively important economic questions, especially in settings where high-quality conventional data are not available. While methodological innovation is welcome, submissions must go beyond a technical contribution; the primary focus should be an economic question whose answer is materially improved through AI-driven measurement. We particularly encourage studies that pair new measures with rigorous causal identification or structural modeling to generate actionable insights for business or public policy.
Submission information
- Submissions must be made using the Journal’s online submission system
- It is important to select Special Issue: AI Measurement in Applied Economics when you reach the Article Type step and to include a note indicating this in a covering letter.
- Please do not indicate a handling editor preference during submission.
- All papers will be subject to the Journal’s normal peer review process and the submission fee policy.
- Please note there are no submission fee refunds for desk rejections, and special issue submissions are not automatically considered for publication in a regular issue of the Journal. If you are unsure your paper matches the scope of the issue as set out above, please contact the Editors prior to submitting.
- Please consult the Journal’s instructions to authors before submitting.
- Short papers (see section 3.1 of instructions to authors) are also welcome.
- If you have questions regarding the submission process, please contact the Editorial Office: ej@editorialoffice.co.uk and reference the Special Issue.
Deadline: 15 January 2026