Giovanni Russo received his PhD from the Free University of Amsterdam in 1996 then he moved to Utrecht University, where he remained till 2004, to become Associate Professor. He has taught at Turin University and he is now at the Free University (Amsterdam) and has a complementary teaching appointment at Trieste University.

He is an applied labor economist and his research interests are: i. labor demand and in particular firms' recruitment behaviour and the way it changes to adapt to changing labor market conditions (in terms of the availability of job seekers and of the types of skills sought); ii. gender differences in labor market behaviour and outcomes with particular attention to career consequences of workers' choices. Iii. the impact of stereotypes (context) on workers' labor market outcomes; iii. structural economic change and the growth of the service industries.

He joined IZA as a Research Fellow in August 2008.