About

Katharine Abraham is a Distinguished University Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland. Her recent research includes topics such as nonstandard work arrangements and the gig economy, work and retirement at older ages, student financial aid, trends in labor force participation, and the measurement of economic conditions and activity. She has served as Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics from 1993 through 2001 and as a Member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers from 2011 through 2013. Abraham also chaired the Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking, whose recommendations contributed to the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018. Currently, she serves as President of the American Economic Association and Chair of the Committee on National Statistics at the National Academy of Sciences. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a distinguished fellow of the AEA. Abraham earned her Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University and her B.S. in economics from Iowa State University.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Economics
• Econometrics
• Labour economics
• Mathematics
• Demography
• Microeconomics
• Demographic economics
• Economic growth
• Statistics
• Actuarial science
• Macroeconomics
• Finance

Selected publications

• Are the Self-Employed Really Their Own Boss? Evidence on the Degree of Autonomy and Control the Self-Employed Have Over Their Work

  2026-01-01

  reportOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Self-employment is commonly equated with being one’s own boss. This implies that, compared to employees, the self-employed have greater freedom to make their own decisions on key aspects of their job, including how they do their work and when they work. In this paper, we use information from a large, nationally representative survey, collected as part of the American Job Quality Study, to examine the degree to which workers in various self-employment arrangements do, in fact, control their own work. We find that while the self-employed are more likely than employees to have a lot of input into how and when they work, more than 40 percent lack such autonomy over how they do their job, and 40 percent lack strong control over their schedules. Moreover, most self-employed workers who have limited control over their work schedules also experience unpredictable schedules and volatile hours, implying that, for many self-employed, their schedules do not reflect their choices. Although our data cannot identify specific cases in which employers misclassify workers as self-employed independent contractors instead of correctly classifying them as employees, our findings are consistent with other evidence showing that worker misclassification is widespread in the United States.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• CHALLENGES AND IMPACTS OF AIRBNB DEVELOPMENT IN ABUJA’S RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY MARKET

  International Journal of African Research Sustainability Studies · 2025-07-08

  articleOpen access

  The emergence of Airbnb has reshaped the dynamics of real estate development in Abuja, Nigeria, creating new opportunities while introducing several challenges and mixed impacts. Hence, this study examines both the positive and negative impacts of Airbnb on the city’s residential property market. A descriptive survey design was employed, targeting 217 registered estate firms and property developers within the Federal Capital Territory. The findings reveal that Airbnb has contributed positively by increasing the demand for short-term rentals, influencing modern property designs, and stimulating investment in emerging neighborhoods. However, the platform has also led to rising housing costs, displacement of long-term tenants, and growing concerns over regulatory loopholes, safety, and unfair market competition. The study concluded that while Airbnb offers substantial benefits to the real estate sector, its sustainable integration requires balanced policies and proactive regulation. To address these issues, the study recommends the introduction of clear legal frameworks for short-term rentals, improved tax enforcement, protection of long-term rental housing stock, and inclusive urban planning that prioritizes affordability and community well-being.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Options for student loan repayment matter

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2025-02-18

  letterOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Driving the Gig Economy

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2024-08-01 · 3 citations

  reportOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Using rich administrative tax data, we explore the effects of the introduction of online ridesharing platforms on entry, employment and earnings in the Taxi and Limousine Services industry. Ridesharing dramatically increased the pace of entry of workers into the industry. New entrants were more likely to be young, female, White and U.S. born, and to combine earnings from ridesharing with wage and salary earnings. Displaced workers have found ridesharing to be a substantially more attractive fallback option than driving a taxi. Ridesharing also affected the incumbent taxi driver workforce. The exit rates of low-earning taxi drivers increased following the introduction of ridesharing in their city; exit rates of high-earning taxi drivers were little affected. In cities without regulations limiting the size of the taxi fleet, both groups of drivers experienced earnings losses following the introduction of ridesharing. These losses were ameliorated or absent in more heavily regulated markets.

  PublisherDOI

• Driving the Gig Economy

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Health Insurance and Part-Time Employment: The Influence of the Affordable Care Act

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Health Insurance and Part-Time Employment: The Influence of the Affordable Care Act

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2024-10-01

  reportOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Prior to the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), part-time workers were much less likely than full-time workers to have health insurance. The ACA included multiple provisions intended to raise health insurance coverage rates, including a mandate that employers provide affordable coverage to full-time workers, a requirement that dependents be allowed to remain on their parents’ plan until age 26, extensions of Medicaid coverage, and the establishment of health insurance exchanges on which lower-income households could purchase subsidized coverage. Implementation of these provisions was associated with a decline in the full-time/part-time coverage gap from 6.5 percentage points in 2013 to 3.1 percentage points in 2021. Increases in Medicaid coverage and insurance purchased on the exchanges reduced were the largest contributors to the reduction in the full-time/part-time coverage gap.

  PublisherDOI

• Local Variation in Onsite Work During the Pandemic and its Aftermath

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Priority of Low-Income Consumer Behaviour in Visiting Market Places

  Communications on Applied Nonlinear Analysis · 2024-07-17

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Need of the study: The competition among the marketers is at cutthroat type so, the marketers have to search for new avenues or the new segments for selling their goods and services. The present study will pave the way to the marketers and producers to reach the markets where the low-income consumers are available to purchase the goods and services at their potentiality. Objectives: To find the market places being visited by the low-income consumers. To know the level of consumption expenditure of low-income consumer in a particular market place. To find the market place where the low-income consumer is spending much. Irrespective of their income level, most of the respondents from low-income consumers preferred ‘public distribution shops’ for food provisions whatever was available there. Secondly, they preferred to visit ‘retail shops’, ‘towns’, and ‘district head quarters’ were cited as the third’, ‘vendors’ as the fourth, and lastly ‘other sources’ as their preferred market places, from where they buy their products and services. (Table no: 3). There is relation between literacy level and visiting market place for purchasing goods and services. To say clearly based on their literacy level the low-income consumers market place priority is changing. Based on post hoc test it is found that there exists some similarity in the consumption expenditure of retail shops and district headquarters. But not in the case of public distribution shops. (Table no: 9). Under the keen competition it is suggested to the marketers to provide the necessary goods at Public Distribution Shops to reach the market which they have never met so far.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Using Mobile Device Activity Data to Study Local Variation in Onsite Work

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2024-01-01 · 2 citations

  reportOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Using longitudinal data on the location of mobile devices, we provide new evidence on the evolution of onsite work (OSW) over the course of the pandemic and its aftermath.We start with a large sample of individuals who, based on their mobile device activity, had a job at which they worked onsite in February 2020.We track the evolution of these individuals' onsite work activity over the following thirteen to fourteen months, observing them in May 2020, August 2020, November 2020 and March/April 2021.Consistent with other evidence, we find a dramatic decline in OSW in May 2020 followed by a substantial rebound by the spring of 2021, albeit to a lower level than in February 2020.We document considerable cross-state, cross-city and crosscounty variation in OSW.We also find, however, that the tract-level variation in OSW within states, cities and even counties far exceeds the variation across larger geographic areas.Observable characteristics such as industry, occupation, education and income account for much of the variation in OSW across large geographic areas since the pandemic.These same variables account for much of the enormous cross-tract variation in OSW that remains after controlling for state or county, but more than half of the cross-tract variation is accounted for by residual factors.These findings imply considerable heterogeneity in how the pandemic has affected where the resident populations of U.S. neighborhoods spend their days, a finding that has significant implications for businesses, workers, and policymakers.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Susan N. Houseman

  69 shared

• James L. Medoff

  57 shared

• John Haltiwanger

  47 shared

• James R. Spletzer

  42 shared

• Henry S. Farber

  23 shared

• Lawrence F. Katz

  National Bureau of Economic Research

  21 shared

• Kristin Sandusky

  19 shared

• Brad J. Hershbein

  12 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Economics

  University of Maryland

  1986

• M.A., Economics

  University of Maryland

  1982

• B.A., Economics

  University of California, Berkeley

  1979

Awards & honors

• President of the American Economic Association (AEA)
• Chair of the Committee on National Statistics, National Acad…
• Member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS)
• Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Distinguished fellow of the American Economic Association (A…