Jessica Urzúa studies how organizational structures and labor market institutions shape employer market power and the social organization of wage-setting.
She is a PhD student in Sociology and Social Policy at Harvard University. She received an AB in Social Anthropology from Harvard College and an MA in Economics from Columbia University.
DOWNLOAD CVDe-Fissuring and the Social Organization of Wage Inequality
Draft available upon request. Early versions circulated 2024–2025.
Examines how bringing outsourced work within a lead firm’s boundaries causally affects wages, showing how employer concentration and organizational boundary changes jointly shape wage-setting and inequality.
Reorganizing Categorical Boundaries: Durable Inequality in Low-Wage Labor Markets
Examines how extending collective bargaining rights to previously excluded workers alters wage-setting, with inequality persisting as employers reorganize categorical boundaries through new employment arrangements.
A Collective Action Puzzle: Union Membership in a Right-to-Work State
Examines how workers navigate union membership in right-to-work settings, focusing on how social boundaries substitute for legal requirements to pay dues.
“Reorganizing Categorical Boundaries: Durable Inequality in Low-Wage Labor Markets”
2024 Ashford Fellows event
Q&A, 2024 Stone Lecture in Economic Inequality with Daron Acemoglu
Question on whether consumer data unions could serve as a countervailing institution to the concentration of data and power among large technology firms.
Watch clip (YouTube)
Panelist, Education Panel on Latina Empowerment and Development
2026 LEAD Conference