Paul Oyer is an authority on empirical labor economics. He focuses on labor and human resources issues, the economics of organizations, incentives, and matching (or two-sided) markets. Professor Oyer has been retained as an expert witness in a variety of matters related to labor economics and compensation, such as performance-based pay systems, overtime pay, alleged discrimination, the effects of “non-compete” agreements, class actions, and lost wages.
Professor Oyer analyzes career dynamics of highly skilled workers in competitive labor markets. Focusing particularly on legal and software engineering professionals, he assesses recruitment and employee incentive systems, including stock option programs. Recently, using data from the global freelancing platform UpWork, Professor Oyer wrote a report about the impact of the “gig” economy on flexible work arrangements and on improved “matching” between firms and workers. He teaches these concepts to MBA students at Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Professor Oyer is a research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research. He serves as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Labor Economics and is the author or coauthor of two books. His articles have appeared in numerous journals, including the Journal of Finance, Research in Labor Economics, and the Journal of Financial Economics.
Professor Oyer began his career in management consulting and has also worked in the high-tech industry.