Improving the workplace of the future | MIT News

Whitney Zhang ’21 believes in the importance of valuing workers regardless of where they fit into an organizational chart.

Zhang is a PhD student in MIT’s Department of Economics studying labor economics. She explores how the technological and managerial decisions companies make affect workers across the pay spectrum. 

“I’ve been interested in economics, economic impacts, and related social issues for a long time,” says Zhang, who majored in mathematical economics as an undergraduate. “I wanted to apply my math skills to see how we could improve policies and their effects.”

Zhang is interested in how to improve conditions for workers. She believes it’s important to build relationships with policymakers, focusing on an evidence-driven approach to policy, while always remembering to center those the policies may affect. “We have to remember the people whose lives are impacted by business operations and legislation,” she says. 

She’s also aware of the complex intermixture of politics, social status, and financial obligations organizations and their employees have to navigate.

“Though I’m studying workers, it’s important to consider the entire complex ecosystem when solving for these kinds of challenges, including firm incentives and global economic conditions,” she says.

The intersection of tech and labor policy

Zhang began investigating employee productivity, artificial intelligence, and related economic and labor market phenomena early in her time as a doctoral student, collaborating frequently with fellow PhD students in the department.

A collaboration with economics doctoral student Shakked Noy yielded the 2023 study investigating ChatGPT as a tool to improve productivity. Their research found it substantially increased workers’ productivity on writing tasks, most so for workers who initially performed the worst on the tasks.

“This was one of the earliest pieces of evidence on the productivity effects of generative AI, and contributed to providing concrete data on how impactful these types of tools might be in the workplace and on the labor market,” Zhang says.

In other ongoing research — “Determinants of Irregular Worker Schedules” — Zhang is using data from a payroll provider to examine scheduling unpredictability, investigating why companies employ unpredictable schedules and how these schedules affect low-wage employees’ quality of life.

The scheduling project, conducted with MIT economics PhD student Nathan Lazarus, is motivated, in part, by existing sociological evidence that low-wage workers’ unpredictable schedules are associated with worse sleep and well-being. “We’ve seen a relationship between higher turnover and inconsistent, inadequate schedules, which suggests workers dis-prefer these kinds of schedules,” Zhang says.

At an academic roundtable, Zhang presented her results to Starbucks employees involved in scheduling and staffing. The attendees wanted to learn more about how different scheduling practices impacted workers and their productivity. “These are the kinds of questions that could reveal useful information for small businesses, large corporations, and others,” she says.

By conducting this research, Zhang hopes to better understand whether or not scheduling regulations can improve affected employees’ quality of life, while also considering potential unintended consequences. “Why are these schedules set the way they’re set?” she asks. “Do businesses with these kinds of schedules require increased regulation?”

Another project, conducted with MIT economics doctoral student Arjun Ramani, examines the linkages between offshoring, remote work, and related outcomes. “Do the technological and managerial practices that have made remote work possible further facilitate offshoring?” she asks. “Do organizations see significant gains in efficiency? What are the impacts on U.S. and offshore workers?”

Her work is being funded through the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program and the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.

Putting people at the center

Zhang has observed the different kinds of people economics and higher education could bring together. She followed a dual enrollment track in high school, completing college-level courses with students from across a variety of demographic identities. “I enjoyed centering people in my work,” she says. “Taking classes with a diverse group of students, including veterans and mothers returning to school to complete their studies, made me more curious about socioeconomic issues and the policies relevant to them.”

She later enrolled at MIT, where she participated in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). She also completed an internship at the World Bank, worked as a summer analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and worked as an assistant for a diverse faculty cohort including MIT economists David Autor, Jon Gruber, and Nina Roussille. Autor is her primary advisor on her doctoral research, a mentor she cites as a significant influence.

“[Autor’s] course, 14.03 (Microeconomics and Public Policy), cemented connections between theory and practice,” she says. “I thought the class was revelatory in showing the kinds of questions economics can answer.”

Doctoral study has revealed interesting pathways of investigation for Zhang, as have her relationships with her student peers and other faculty. She has, for example, leveraged faculty connections to gain access to hourly wage data in support of her scheduling and employee impacts work. “Generally, economists have had administrative data on earnings, but not on hours,” she notes.

Zhang’s focus on improving others’ lives extends to her work outside the classroom. She’s a mentor for the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center College Access Program and a member of MIT’s Graduate Christian Fellowship group. When she’s not enjoying spicy soups or paddling on the Charles, she takes advantage of opportunities to decompress with her art at W20 Arts Studios.

“I wanted to create time for myself outside of research and the classroom,” she says.

Zhang cites the benefits of MIT’s focus on cross-collaboration and encouraging students to explore other disciplines. As an undergraduate, Zhang minored in computer science, which taught her coding skills critical to her data work. Exposure to engineering also led her to become more interested in questions around how technology and workers interact.

Working with other scholars in the department has improved how Zhang conducts inquiries. “I’ve become the kind of well-rounded student and professional who can identify and quantify impacts, which is invaluable for future projects,” she says. Exposure to different academic and research areas, Zhang argues, helps increase access to ideas and information.