Researcher and educator
Associate Professor of Management
Quinlan School of Business, Loyola University Chicago

Peter Norlander

I study industrial relations: how institutions, employer power, and technology shape workers’ opportunities.

My research examines worker mobility, employment relationships, and technology. I develop open tools to measure workplace practices from text and build information that researchers and institutions can use.

Research and publications Curriculum vitae

Research themes

Open tools for workforce research and information

My current work connects descriptions of work to shared task and skill vocabularies, enabling researchers and institutions to build and evaluate workforce information.

From job postings to workforce information with open tools — featured work in progress. Companion website with results, demonstrations, and research resources. Public project companion With Stephen Meisenbacher and Svetlozar Nestorov.
Building a Custom Taxonomy of AI Skills and Tasks from the Ground Up with Job Postings — with S. Meisenbacher. CustomNLP4U proceedings (2026).

Employer power, worker mobility, and employment institutions

How do the rules governing employment shape workers’ options and employers’ power? My work examines guest-worker programs, wage theft, and restrictions on mobility.

Wage Theft, Economic Conditions, and Market Power: The Case of H-1B Workers — with J. DeVaro. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, forthcoming (2026). Link to discussion-paper version.
Political Directors and the Recruitment of Foreign Workers — with S. Sauerwald. Journal of Management (2026).
New Evidence on Employee Noncompete, No Poach, and No Hire Agreements in the Franchise Sector — Research in Labor Economics (2024).
The Balance of Power in Franchising — IZA Discussion Paper No. 18660 (2026). Contractual evidence on declining franchisee autonomy and its relationship to private equity acquisition.

Technology and the organization of work

My research examines how technological supervision and changes in where work takes place reshape employment relationships.

How the past of outsourcing and offshoring is the future of post-pandemic remote work — with C. L. Erickson. Industrial Relations Journal (2022).
The Effects of Technological Supervision on Gig Workers — with A. Varma, N. Jukic, and S. Nestorov. International Journal of Human Resource Management (2021).