JYOTSANA KALA
Welcome! I’m a PhD candidate in Economics at the University of California, Irvine. My research interests lie at the intersection of Labor Economics & Macroeconomic Theory, with a particular focus on market power. I study how market power shapes outcomes in the labor market—especially under informational frictions—and in the goods market, where it interacts with monetary policy.I’m on the job market this year (2025-26). My job market paper documents the first empirical evidence of algorithmic wage discrimination in the gig economy and explores its implications. Workers share their stories of navigating this reality here.Please find my CV here. You can also find me on LinkedIn, Google Scholar, SSRN and X, or email me at [email protected].
RESEARCH
Job Market Paper
"Algorithmic Wage Discrimination: Evidence from Uber”
Digital platforms are increasingly relying on algorithms to personalize pay for gig workers. This paper provides the first empirical evidence of algorithmic wage discrimination in the labor market using novel data on Uber drivers. Exploiting Uber’s transition to algorithmic wage setting in 2022, I employ a staggered difference-in-differences research design to estimate its causal impact on labor market outcomes. Algorithmic wage setting significantly increases personalization in pay and decreases drivers’ average earnings per trip. This occurs alongside reductions in passenger fare and drivers’ wait time between trips. The decline in earnings is systematically larger for drivers with lower rejection rates. These heterogeneous effects are consistent with Uber’s algorithm learning about drivers’ reservation wages from their engagement histories—specifically, their acceptance and rejection decisions—and using this information to tailor wage offers.Working Papers
“Dynamics of Market Power in Monetary Economies”
with Lucie Lebeau and Lu Wang
Revise & Resubmit at European Economic ReviewWe study the dynamic interplay between monetary policy and market power in a decentralized monetary economy. Our key innovation is to model rent-seeking as a process that takes time, allowing market power to evolve gradually. Consistent with the stylized correlation observed over the last few decades in the US, a gradual reduction in the nominal interest rate increases rent-seeking effort and producers’ market power over time. Indeterminacy and path dependence emerge when consumers benefit from valuable outside options, with monetary policy shocks potentially locking the economy into high- or low-market-power equilibria.“City Size, Monopsony, and the Employment Effects of Minimum Wages”
with Priyaranjan Jha, David Neumark and Antonio Rodriguez-Lopez
Revise & Resubmit at Journal of Urban Economics: InsightWe assess how minimum wage effects on restaurant employment in the U.S. vary with labor market size and monopsony power. Using city-level data, we construct monopsony proxies based on labor flows and concentration. Minimum wages bind less in larger cities, consistent with the urban wage premium, and omitting this relationship overstates how labor market power reduces adverse employment effects of minimum wages. Nonetheless, accounting for city size, lower job market fluidity is linked to weaker negative employment effects, consistent with search models. By contrast, traditional concentration measures do not consistently predict variation in the effects of minimum wages.“Minimum Wages and Race Disparities”
with David Neumark
NBER Working PaperWe provide a comprehensive analysis of the effects of minimum wages on blacks, and on the relative impacts on blacks vs. whites. We find evidence that job loss effects from higher minimum wages are more evident for blacks, and in contrast not very detectable for whites. Moreover, the effects of minimum wages are often large enough to generate adverse effects on earnings (and relative earnings) of blacks. Given strong residential segregation by race in the United States, the race difference in the effects of minimum wages implies that any adverse impacts fall on areas with a high black population share.Works in Progress
“Market Rents with Two-Sided Heterogeneity and Asymmetric Information”
This paper studies the size and distribution of market rents between workers and firms in a random search model economy with match-specific heterogeneity and private information. Firms offer a menu of employment contracts composed of wages and working hours to screen workers. Asymmetric information unambiguously reduces total surplus and matching efficiency in the market but leads to redistribution of market rents from firms to the workers. Further, first-order and second-order stochastic dominant changes in the distribution of productivity and disutility that increase the average match quality can reduce expected profits and market rents due to distortions created by information frictions.“The Effects of Fair Workweek Laws on Labor Market Outcomes”
with David Neumark and Vitor Melo“The Effects of Mass Layoffs on Real Estate Markets”
with Maximilian Gunnewig-Monert and Roozbeh F. Moghadam
TEACHING
My teaching philosophy is grounded in connection, clarity, and collaboration. I believe that economics education should equip students not just with technical tools, but with the confidence and curiosity to engage with ideas critically. Students learn most effectively when they are encouraged to challenge what they’re taught.At UC Irvine, I have served as a teaching assistant for graduate Macroeconomics, and for several undergraduate courses including Applied Econometrics, Corporate Finance, Economics of International Business and Basic Economics. I have also been a Pedagogical Fellow with the Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation (DTEI), leading the TA Professional Development Program for the incoming class of TAs for three consecutive years in the School of Social Sciences.Student Evaluations
Here are some select student testimonials from Macro I graduate students, taken from my full set of teaching evaluations:“This TA has truly been the highlight of the course. Her kindness, empathy, and exceptional teaching skills make learning a pleasure. She is a role model for effective teaching, and her dedication has significantly contributed to my understanding and success in this class. I hope to have the opportunity to learn from her again in the future. She sets an inspiring standard for what a great educator should be!”“This TA is truly exceptional—one of the most caring and dedicated instructors I’ve ever encountered. She goes above and beyond to ensure students understand the material, whether through detailed email responses, thoughtful office hour discussions, or well-prepared classes. Her ability to break down complex topics into beginner-friendly explanations is remarkable, making the course objectives clear and approachable. Her discussions are incredibly helpful for mastering the material, and it’s evident she invests significant time and effort into preparation. She creates a supportive, empathetic, and structured learning environment that fosters success for every student.”“The material presented in lecture felt very difficult and hard to follow, but Jyotsana was able to condense the material and present it in a simple way that made difficult material easier to follow, at least intuitively.”