The Heterogeneous Productivity Effects of Generative AI
This research addresses how generative AI affects worker productivity, particularly in software development, but is incremental as it focuses on a specific policy shock.
The study analyzed the impact of Italy's ChatGPT ban on GitHub users' coding productivity, finding that less experienced users increased output quantity and quality, while experienced users decreased productivity on routine tasks.
We analyse the individual productivity effects of Italy's ban on ChatGPT, a generative pretrained transformer chatbot. We compile data on the daily coding output quantity and quality of over 36,000 GitHub users in Italy and other European countries and combine these data with the sudden announcement of the ban in a difference-in-differences framework. Among the affected users in Italy, we find a short-term increase in output quantity and quality for less experienced users and a decrease in productivity on more routine tasks for experienced users.