Essays in Applied Economics forLabour and Urban Integration

This thesis considers labour and urban contexts where migrants are disproportionately represented. The first chapter explores an urban policy that aimed to improve public housing areas with low socio-economic status and a high share of migrants in Denmark, known as the Ghetto Policy. Using administrative data from the Danish population register and novel data on public housing addresses, the study evaluates the policy’s efficacy and impact on neighborhood socio-economic composition. The classification of a public housing area reduces average income and education. These changes are primarily driven by a net out-migration of individuals with higher incomes and levels of education while there is no significant effect for these indicators on those that remain. The second chapter zooms into gig work and explores the earnings differential faced by migrants. By analyzing administrative delivery-level data from an on-demand delivery service in Italy, the study controls for demand-side factors to isolate supply-side influences. The results show that foreign-born riders earn significantly less than native-born riders, even when accounting for various controls. The analysis identifies that familiarity with the host country, network formation, and earnings targets all contribute to widening the earnings gap between foreign- and native-born riders. The third chapter investigates the impact of a gig working platforms entry on traditional working arrangements and how the introduction of gig work opportunities may be traded off. I use a novel dataset that merges comprehensive employer-employee data from the Veneto region with delivery-level information from Italy’s largest on-demand delivery service platform, the analysis leverages the platform’s staggered rollout across the region. The findings indicate that the platform’s availability initially increases registered unemployment, followed by a delayed rise in employment. Individuals engaging in gig work are more likely to secure fixed-term contracts of shorter duration and experience prolonged periods of registered unemployment after the platform’s introduction.