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Catherine Thomas.

Catherine Thomas

Trade Programme Director

Expertise: international, organizational economics, industrial organization

Telephone:
020 7849 4632
Email:
c.m.thomas@lse.ac.uk
Room:
MAR 6.29
Connect:
Twitter
Website
Links:
CEP Trade
LSE Department of Management

Biography

Dr Catherine Thomas is an Associate Professor of Managerial Economics and Strategy at the London School of Economics.

Current areas of research include:

  • Firm boundaries: Offshoring and outsourcing, mergers and acquisitions.
  • Global supply chains: Trade and investment.
  • Online labour markets

Publications

Blog
The value of online gig economy platforms

The gig economy and online labour platforms often trade off increased flexibility for lower employment security. Christopher Stanton and Catherine Thomas show how traditional labour market regulations, such as minimum wa... Read more...

Christopher T. Stanton and Catherine Thomas

15 January 2022

CEP discussion papers
Efficient industrial policy for innovation: standing on the shoulders of hidden giants

Research and development is underprovided whenever it creates knowledge spillovers that drive a wedge between its total and private economic returns. Heterogeneity in the intensity of this market failure across technolog... Read more...

Charlotte Guillard, Ralf Martin, Pierre Mohnen, Catherine Thomas and Dennis Verhoeven

04 November 2021

Journal article
In-house and arms length: productivity heterogeneity and variation in organizational form

This paper analyzes firm boundaries in the US hotel industry. Hotel properties of a given brand are often managed either by a chain employee or by a franchisee. We document that brand properties with the lowest and the h... Read more...

Arturs Kalnins, Stephen F. Lin and Catherine Thomas

01 November 2020

Journal article
The Gig Economy Beyond Local Services and Transportation

The gig economy characterizes a wide variety of short-term freelance work, typically intermediated via online platforms that facilitate matching between buyers and providers. The widespread growth of ride-sharing platfor... Read more...

Christopher T. Stanton and Catherine Thomas

01 September 2020

CEP discussion papers
Missing trade in tasks: employer outsourcing in the gig economy

Only a small share of employers in high-wage locations procure services from abroad. We document heterogeneous employer adoption of an online labor market that facilitates trade in tasks with global workers. Job vacancie... Read more...

Christopher T. Stanton and Catherine Thomas

19 March 2019

CEP discussion papers
In-house and arms length: productivity heterogeneity and variation in organizational form

This paper analyzes how firms are organized in the U.S. hotel management industry. For most hotel brands, properties with intermediate room occupancy rates are relatively more likely to be managed by company employees ra... Read more...

Arturs Kalnins, Stephen F. Lin and Catherine Thomas

29 October 2018

Journal article
UK trade and FDI: A post-Brexit perspective

Leaving the EU will reshape the UK's economic relations with the rest of the world. This paper summarizes the findings of recent research studying the UK's role in the global economy, and the consequences of Brexit for U... Read more...

Swati Dhingra, Gianmarco I. P. Ottaviano, Veronica Rappoport, Thomas Sampson and Catherine Thomas

01 March 2018

CEP discussion papers
UK trade and FDI: a post-Brexit perspective

Leaving the EU will change the UK’s economic relations with the rest of the world. This paper discusses the UK’s role in the global economy and the consequences of Brexit for the UK’s trade, investment and living standar... Read more...

Swati Dhingra, Gianmarco I. P. Ottaviano, Veronica Rappoport, Thomas Sampson and Catherine Thomas

22 June 2017

Journal article
Capacity Investment under Demand Uncertainty: The Role of Imports in the U.S. Cement Industry

Demand uncertainty is thought to influence irreversible capacity decisions. Suppose that local demand can be sourced from domestic (rigid) production or from (flexible) imports. This paper shows that the optimal domestic... Read more...

Guy Meunier, Jean-Pierre Ponssard and Catherine Thomas

01 July 2016

Journal article
Landing the first job: The value of intermediaries in online hiring

Online markets for remote labour services allow workers and firms to contract with each other directly. Despite this, intermediaries-called outsourcing agencies-have emerged in these markets. This article shows that agen... Read more...

Christopher T. Stanton and Catherine Thomas

01 April 2016

CentrePiece - The magazine of the Centre for Economic Performance
Online hiring of offshore workers: the value of intermediaries

‘Old boy networks’ have not been rendered obsolete by modern communications technology. That is one of the conclusions of a study of global online labour markets by Christopher Stanton and Catherine Thomas. Their researc... Read more...

Christopher T. Stanton and Catherine Thomas

22 February 2016

CEP discussion papers
Landing The First Job: The Value of Intermediaries in Online Hiring

Online markets for remote labor services allow workers and firms to contract with each other directly. Despite this, intermediaries - called outsourcing agencies - have emerged in these markets. This paper shows that age... Read more...

Christopher T. Stanton and Catherine Thomas

28 November 2014

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