Erik Brynjolfsson was born to Marguerite Reman Brynjolfsson and Ari Brynjolfsson, a nuclear physicist. He earned his A.B., magna cum laude, in 1984 and his S.M. in Applied Mathematics and Decision Sciences at Harvard University in 1984. He received a Ph.D. in Managerial Economics in 1991 from the MIT Sloan School of Management. Brynjolfsson has served on the faculties of MIT since 1986, Harvard from 1985 to 1995 and Stanford from 1996 to 1998. In 2001 he was appointed the Schussel Family Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He lectures and consults worldwide, and serves on corporate boards. He teaches the popular course 15.567, The Economics of Information: Strategy, Structure, and Pricing, at MIT and hosts a related blog, Economics of Information. He was also a contributing member to the Winter, 2004 Boston Ski and Sports Club Championship flag football team. In February 2020, Stanford announced that Brynjolfsson would join its faculty in July. His research has been recognized with nine "best paper" awards by fellow academics, including the John DC Little Award for the best paper in Marketing Science. Brynjolfsson is the founder of two companies and has been awarded five U.S. patents. Along with Andrew McAfee, he was awarded the top prize in the Digital Thinkers category at the Thinkers 50 Gala on November 9, 2015. Brynjolfsson is of Icelandic descent.
Work
Brynjolfsson's research interests focus on the economic impacts of information technology on productivity at both the level of the firm and the economy. He has examined a number of topics, such as intangible assets, information worker productivity, the Long Tail in digital goods, and business process replication. More recently, in his books and Race Against the Machine, Brynjolfsson and his co-author Andrew McAfee have argued that technology is racing ahead, and called for greater efforts to update our skills, organizations and institutions more rapidly.
Brynjolfsson wrote an influential review of the "IT Productivity Paradox" and in separate research, documented a correlation between IT investment and productivity. His work provides evidence that the use of Information Technology is most likely to increase productivity when it is combined with complementary business processes and human capital.
McAfee, Andrew and Brynjolfsson, Erik Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing the Digital Revolution, W.W. Norton & Company,
Brynjolfsson, Erik and McAfee, Andrew , W.W. Norton & Company,
Brynjolfsson, Erik and McAfee, Andrew Race Against The Machine: How the Digital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity, and Irreversibly Transforming Employment and the Economy. Digital Frontier Press.
Brynjolfsson, Erik and Saunders, Adam Wired for Innovation: How Information Technology is Reshaping the Economy. The MIT Press.
Wu, Lynn and Brynjolfsson, Erik "". NBER Conference Technological Progress & Productivity Measurement, 2009; WISE, 2009; ICIS, 2009.
Brynjolfsson, Erik and Hitt, Lorin ,Review of Economics and Statistics.
Brynjolfsson, Erik and Hitt, Lorin "Beyond Computation: Information Technology, Organizational Transformation and Business Performance," Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 14, No. 4, pp. 23–48.
Bresnahan, Timothy, Brynjolfsson, Erik and Hitt, Lorin "Information Technology, Workplace Organization and the Demand for Skilled Labor: Firm Level Evidence" Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 117, pp. 339–376.
Brynjolfsson, Erik, Hitt, Lorin and Yang, Shinkyu "Intangible Assets: Computers and Organizational Capital", Brookings Papers on Economic Activity: Macroeconomics, 137–199.
Bundling and pricing of information goods
Bakos, Yannis and Brynjolfsson, Erik "Bundling Information Goods: Pricing, Profits and Efficiency", Management Science, Vol. 45, No. 12, pp. 1613–1630.
Bakos, Yannis and Brynjolfsson, Erik "Bundling and Competition on the Internet", Marketing Science, Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 63–82.
Brynjolfsson, Erik, Smith, Michael and Hu, Yu "Consumer Surplus in the Digital Economy: Estimating the Value of Increased Product Variety at Online Booksellers," Management Science, Vol 49, No. 11.
Brynjolfsson, Erik, Hu, Yu and Rahman, Mohammad "Battle of the Retail Channels: How Product Selection and Geography Drive Cross-channel Competition", Management Science, Vol. 55, No. 11.
Brynjolfsson, Erik, Hu, Yu and Simester, Dunan "Goodbye Pareto Principle, Hello Long Tail: The Effect of Search Costs on the Concentration of Product Sales"
