Otto Kässi is a labour economist with a background in econometrics. His research concentrates on empirical study of online labour markets, as part of the iLabour project with Vili Lehdonvirta.
Dr Otto Kässi
Research Associate
Profile
Otto worked on the ERC funded project iLabour: The Construction of Labour Markets, Institutions and Movements on the Internet. The project examines online labour markets that form part of the so-called “sharing economy”, examining their social and policy implications.
His work includes collecting data from online labour markets and analysing it with statistical and econometric methods.
Otto earned both Master’s and Doctoral Degrees from the University of Helsinki. His studies concentrated on labour economics with a particular emphasis in econometric and statistical methods.
Research interests
econometrics, labour economics, statistics, data analysis, online labour markets
Positions held at the OII
- Research Associate, September 2019
- Researcher, December 2015 – September 2019
Research
Past projects
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iLabour: The Construction of Labour Markets, Institutions and Movements on the Internet
Participants: Professor Vili Lehdonvirta, Dr Otto Kässi, Greetje (Gretta) Corporaal, Dr Alex J. Wood
The iLabour project is premised on the idea that a fundamental change is taking place in labour markets. It seeks to understand the social and policy implications of this momentous shift.
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The Internet’s Effects on Economic Opportunities in Rural Areas: the Case of Online Labour Markets
Participants: Professor Vili Lehdonvirta, Dr Otto Kässi, Dr Fabian Braesemann
This project tracks where digitally transacted work takes place, and compares this data to city- and state-level labour market statistics in order to test whether geographical working patterns differ between online and traditional labour markets.
Featured
- (2018) "Online Labour Index: Measuring the Online Gig Economy for Policy and Research", Technological Forecasting and Social Change. 137 241-248.
- (2018) "The global platform economy: A new offshoring institution enabling emerging-economy microproviders", Journal of Management. 45 (2) 567-599.
Conference papers
- (2016) "“Not a Lot of People Know Where It Is”: Liabilities of Origin in Online Contract Work", Collective Intelligence. Collective Intelligence, NYU, New York, 31 May – 2 September 2016. NYU Stern School of Business.
- (2016) "Building the Online Labour Index: A Tool for Policy and Research", CSCW 2016 workshop on The Future of Platforms as Sites of Work, Collaboration and Trust,. Association for Computing Machinery.
Journal articles
- (2020) "ICTs and the Urban-Rural Divide: Can Online Labour Platforms Bridge the Gap?", Information, Communication and Society. 1-21.
- (2018) "Online Labour Index: Measuring the Online Gig Economy for Policy and Research", Technological Forecasting and Social Change. 137 241-248.
- (2018) "The global platform economy: A new offshoring institution enabling emerging-economy microproviders", Journal of Management. 45 (2) 567-599.
- (2014) "Earnings dynamics of men and women in Finland: Permanent inequality versus earnings instability. Empirical Economics", Empirical Economics: a quarterly journal of the Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna. 46 (2) 451-477.
- (2013) "Demand spillovers of smash-hit papers: evidence from the ‘Male Organ Incident’", SpringerPlus. 2 (1) 168.
- Workers’ task choice heuristics as a source of emergent structure in digital microwork.
Reports
- OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers. Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD).
Videos
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The Global Platform Economy: A New Off-Shoring Institution Enabling Emerging Economy Providers
Recorded: 8 November 2018
Duration: 00:03:58
Video abstract of the paper 'The Global Platform Economy: A New Off-Shoring Institution Enabling Emerging Economy Providers', published in the Journal of Management
News
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Online labour platforms offer growing alternative to traditional offshoring
8 November 2018
Online labour platforms that connect freelance workers and clients around the world are emerging as an alternative to traditional offshoring, according to new Oxford Internet Institute research.
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Prizes for OII staff and students at Oxford’s OxTalent awards
22 June 2017
The OII picked up prizes at Oxford's 2017 OxTALENT awards, which recognise members of the University who have made innovative use of digital technology.
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Rise of online work captured in the first Online Labour Index
21 September 2016
The Online Labour Index is a tool that measures the utilisation of online labour markets in near realtime. It shows us how much work is being done, and what kinds of skills are being utilised.
Blog
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The Online Labour Index 2020: New ways to measure the world’s remote freelancing market
6 October 2021
Authors: Fabian Stephany, Otto Kassi, Uma Rani, Vili Lehdonvirta
Authors: Fabian Stephany, Otto Kässi, Uma Rani, Vili Lehdonvirta In Short: The Online Labour Index 2020 (OLI 2020) provides researchers, policy makers, and the ...
Read More The Online Labour Index 2020: New ways to measure the world’s remote freelancing market -
Can online labour platforms bring jobs to the countryside?
28 May 2021
Author: Fabian Braesemann
Digital technologies have created new online marketplaces and industries, and they fundamentally changed how we live and work. But until recently, they have not ...
Read More Can online labour platforms bring jobs to the countryside? -
Comparing the OLI Worker Map to other studies on online work supply
14 July 2017
Author: Otto Kassi
Our new Online Labour Index worker map provides a real-time measurement of the online gig economy by revealing where different types of jobs are ...
Read More Comparing the OLI Worker Map to other studies on online work supply -
Measuring the supply of digital labour: How the OLI worker supplement is constructed
11 July 2017
Author: Otto Kassi
As more and more tasks and projects are transacted via online platforms and apps, national governments and statistical agencies face increasing challenges in tracking ...
Read More Measuring the supply of digital labour: How the OLI worker supplement is constructed -
Online Labour Index wins in a University data visualisation competition
29 June 2017
Author: Otto Kassi
We are happy to announce that the Online Labour Index won the first prize in an annual OxTALENT competition organised by the University of ...
Read More Online Labour Index wins in a University data visualisation competition -
Mapping the demand for online labour
27 October 2016
Author: Otto Kassi
Our colleagues over at the Geonet project have drawn some wonderful maps based on our Online Labour Index country data. The open vacancies are plotted ...
Read More Mapping the demand for online labour -
How is online work classified in the OLI?
21 September 2016
Author: Otto Kassi
The Online Labour Index is an index measuring the changes in the volume of projects transacted in major online platforms. As a part of OLI, ...
Read More How is online work classified in the OLI? -
How the Online Labour Index is constructed
18 September 2016
Author: Otto Kassi
The Online Labour Index is an index that measures the utilization of online labour platforms over time and across countries and occupations. Online labour ...
Read More How the Online Labour Index is constructed -
Building the Online Labour Index
25 February 2016
Author: Otto Kassi
“While it may seem trivial if, for example, a housewife spends ten minutes filling out an online survey for a dollar, if there are ...
Read More Building the Online Labour Index -
Building the Online Labour Index
25 February 2016
Author: Otto Kassi
“While it may seem trivial if, for example, a housewife spends ten minutes filling out an online survey for a dollar, if there are ...
Read More Building the Online Labour Index
Press
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Online gig economy is growing, but no one knows by how much
4 November 2018 CBC
That's the gap the Oxford University-based OLI is attempting to bridge, and its creators boast that the index is the first of its kind — a global economic indicator for the online gig economy.
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Online Gig Economy Up 26% Over Last Year: Oxford Internet Institute
9 July 2017 Spend Matters
The Oxford Internet Institute recently highlighted a sharp rise in its Online Labour Index, which "measures the utilization of online labor across countries and occupations by tracking the number of projects and tasks in real time."
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Online jobs in gig economy growing fast, finds new index
22 September 2016 The Guardian
Jobs advertised on sites such as as Freelancer.com and PeoplePerHour leapt by 14% since May, says OII's Online Labour index.
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Forget Uber: Online self-employment gigs are booming in popularity
22 September 2016 The Memo
The total number of new freelance digital jobs in the UK has jumped a huge 14% since May alone, according to new data.
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Oxford Internet Institute’s iLabour Project Launches Online Labor Index to Measure Gig Economy
22 September 2016 Spend Matters
Oxford University Associate Professor Vili Lehdonvirta and fellow researcher Dr Otto Kässi have announced the public launch of the Online Labour Index (OLI), a first-of-its-kind metric to track utilization of "online labor" in the so-called "gig economy".
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A third of companies are at ‘full capacity’ and looking to hire
22 September 2016 CIPD
The OII's new Online Labour Index tracks job vacancies listed on sites such as Freelancer and PeoplePerHour, with growth in the UK faster than the rest of Europe and the US.
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Gig economy on the rise in the UK
21 September 2016 IT Pro
Oxford research reveals 14% increase in on-demand freelance platforms in the UK since May.
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Rapid increase in ‘gig’ working
21 September 2016 HR Magazine
Researchers at the University of Oxford have launched the Online Labour Index, which gathered data on the online gig economy from sites and apps across the world between May and September 2016.
