Dmitri K. Koustas

Is Gig Work Replacing Traditional Employment?

During his visit, Dimitri Koustas will be presenting research on the US gig economy at the CESifo and LINER-AUEB Workshop on “The Effects of the Digital Transformation on the Workplace and the Labor Market.” In particular, this research examines the universe of US tax returns in order to reconcile seemingly contradictory facts about the rise of alternative work arrangements. The paper shows that the increased rise in online platform work for labor that is driven by earnings that are small and typically supplemental sources of income. The paper also investigates how freelance/contract work fits into broader self-employment trends. Overall, the evidence suggests that gig work is not replacing traditional jobs or entrepreneurship, but new online platforms may provide opportunities for supplemental, part-time work that did not previously exist, particularly for younger workers.

Dmitri Koustas’s research covers a variety of topics in labor economics and macroeconomics, as well as household finance, applied econometrics, big data and machine learning. An important vein of his research focuses on measuring and understanding the reasons why households participate in alternative work arrangements such as the gig economy. He also works on topics in household consumption theory on topics such as the Marginal Propensity to Consume (MPC), consumption insurance and consumption inequality. To this end, his research pioneers new and innovative datasets, including micro transactions from an online personal financial aggregator and bill-paying application, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax returns, and direct partnerships with technology companies.

Dmitri Koustas is Assistant Professor, Harris Public Policy, at the University of Chicago. He earned a BS with honors in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University, an MPhil with distinction in economic history from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.