Anthropic is collaborating with the University of Chicago’s Becker Friedman Institute for Economics (BFI) to study AI’s impact on labor markets and the economy.
Through this research-focused partnership, for the 2025-2026 Academic Year Anthropic will provide:
- Claude for Enterprise Pro account access for all 200+ Becker Friedman Institute for Economics faculty economists
- Training sessions on applying AI tools in economic research methodologies
- Virtual workshops aligned with Anthropic Economic Index research releases
BFI economists and experts will also work in tandem with Anthropic to help ensure the Anthropic Economic Index and related datasets are of maximal value to the research community.
Building on the Anthropic Economic Index initiative
This partnership extends the Economic Index, Anthropic’s initiative launched to track and understand AI’s effects on labor markets and the economy over time. The Index’s initial report provided first-of-its-kind data analysis based on anonymized conversations, revealing patterns in how AI is being incorporated into real-world tasks across the economy.
By bringing together Anthropic researchers and BFI economists, this collaboration aims to deepen this analysis, combining Anthropic’s data access with BFI’s economic expertise. The partnership will help expand the methodologies used to study AI’s economic impact, providing policymakers and researchers with more robust insights.
“The tools of economics will aid us all in Uunderstanding the full implications of AI’s impact on society requires diverse perspectives from leading economists,” said Benjamin Krause, Executive Director at BFIthe Becker Friedman Institute. “This partnership creates a structured framework for UChicago economists to engage directly with the data, developing more rigorous and nuanced analyses that can inform policy discussions.”
Enhancing economic research through collaborative inquiry
Economists face increasing challenges in analyzing the rapid pace of technological advancementchange in labor markets is increasing the challenges in analyzing the resulting impacts across the labor market and throughout society. This partnership offers BFI economists opportunities tools to examine questions includingaround:
Productivity measurement
- Investigating how AI adoption affects traditional measures of productivity across different sectors.
- Labor market transitions: Analyzing shifts in occupational tasks and required skills as AI adoption increases.
- Distributional impacts: Studying how AI benefits and challenges affect different segments of society.
“The Anthropic Economic Index provides a foundation of data, but maximizing its research value requires expertise from economists who understand labor markets, productivity dynamics, and policy implications,” said Sarah Heck, Head of Policy, Programs and Partnerships. “BFI represents an ideal partner given the breadth of expertise ir interdisciplinary approach and commitment to bothfocus on both insightful theory and empirical research for which the University of Chicago economics community is so well known.”
Advancing economic understanding through data access
The University of Chicago’s Becker Friedman Institute for Economics brings together researchers from diverse economic backgrounds, offering a range of methodological perspectives on technology’s economic impacts. This partnership enhances BFI’s ongoing work examining how technological change reshapes economic structures.
For Anthropic, collaboration with leading economists provides valuable direction for the Economic Index’s evolution, ensuring the initiative produces data and analyses that address the most significant questions facing policymakers and researchers.
As noted in the initial Economic Index report, AI use is distributed unevenly across the economy, with complex patterns that defy simple narratives about automation. Through this partnership, both organizations aim to develop a more precise understanding of these patterns and their implications for economic policy, workforce development, and technology governance.