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Mark Westerfield

Mark Westerfield

Institution

University of Washington

PhD Year

2004

FTG Membership

Member

Website

http://www.markwesterfield.com/

Areas of Expertise

Corporate Finance Financial Contracting Venture Capital, Private Equity & Private Credit

Featured Work

When Solutions Are Abundant but Problems Scarce: AI in the Market for Knowledge

Sep 18, 2026

Felix Feng, Brett Green, Curtis Taylor, Mark Westerfield

We study how artificial intelligence affects welfare in general equilibrium when production requires both finding and solving problems. Unsolved problems are unexploited opportunities or unmet needs that agents find in a congested sector. Problems are solved in layered hierarchies in which agents can ask for help. Firms may adopt a replicable AI agent in either activity. AI deployed in solving problems splits the human knowledge...