In this paper, I explore how traditional working arrangements are affected by the introduction of a gig platform. I do so by forming a novel dataset that combines comprehensive employer-employee data from the Veneto region of Italy with delivery-level information from Italy's largest on-demand delivery service platform. By exploiting the platform's staggered rollout across the region, I find the platform’s availability increases registered unemployment followed by a delayed rise in employment. Individuals that take up gig work are more likely to have fixed-term contracts with a shorter duration and spend more time registered as unemployed after the platform’s introduction.

Residential segregation is influenced by a multitude of historical and structural factors, but it is also significantly shaped by peoples’ ability and decisions to move into and out of different neighborhoods. We evaluate Denmark’s Ghetto Plan, a policy introduced in 2010 with the goal to reduce residential segregation throughout the country. In particular, we study how this policy affected residential moving decisions, and how this type of mobility contributed to achieving the policy’s goal. The Ghetto Plan affects only public housing areas, and defines thresholds at the neighborhood level, which are related to country of origin, education level, criminal activity, income, and labor market participation of inhabi- tants. Neighborhoods that cross enough thresholds are listed on yearly updated and publicly available lists. Once listed, neighborhoods are treated by a range of policies aimed to increase labor market participation, reduce crime, increase children’s day-care enrollment, and influence neighborhood com- positions via moving-in restrictions. We compare outcomes for people in addresses that were treated with outcomes for people in addresses that were considered but not treated. We find that the Ghetto Plan was largely ineffective, as it did not fundamentally alter neighborhoods’ socio-economic compo- sition. We find evidence for statistically significant yet small improvements in average incomes (of ca. 500 DKK a month) and an increase in labor market participation (of ca. 1 percentage point). When we break these effects down into groups of people who moved or stayed in treated neighborhoods, we find that effects are explained by residential mobility, or relative changes in the composition of groups of people who chose to move out and into treated neighborhoods. Our results help to understand better how residential moving contributes to the making and changing of ghettos.

A growing body of literature highlights the earnings disparities faced by minorities in the labor market, including migrants. While much of this research has focused on demand-side factors, such as employer discrimination, less attention has been given to supply-side contributors to these disparities. Using detailed administrative data from a large on-demand delivery service in Italy, this study controls for demand-side factors to better understand the role of supply-side differences. We first document that foreign-born riders earn significantly less than their native-born counterparts, even after controlling for a comprehensive set of variables. We then examine how familiarity with the host country (measured by experience), network formation (assessed through location choice), and earnings targets influence labor supply decisions and contribute to the observed earnings gap. Our findings suggest that all three factors exacerbate the earnings differential between foreign-born and native-born riders.