[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/jns/jbstat/v239y2019i3p565-597n6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On-Demand Digital Economy: Can Experience Ensure Work and Income Security for Microtask Workers?

Author

Listed:
  • Rani Uma

    (International Labour Organization, Route des Morillons 4, CH-1211, Geneva22, Switzerland)

  • Furrer Marianne

    (International Labour Organization, Route des Morillons 4, CH-1211, Geneva22, Switzerland)

Abstract
Digital labour platforms have been increasingly gaining popularity over the past decade. In particular, there has been much debate about workers’ motivations and working conditions on microtask platforms. There exists little evidence on whether dependence on digital microtask platforms provides workers with work and income security in the long term and whether it provides opportunities for skill development. This paper explores the extent to which the seemingly flexible platform work ensures work and income security and provides opportunities for skill development for workers with different levels of experience, based on novel survey data collected on five globally operating microtask platforms and in-depth interviews with workers. The findings show that despite high financial dependence on this work, returns to experience on the platform are meagre in terms of earnings, and highly experienced workers face the same risks as new entrants with regard to discrimination, high work intensity, lack of autonomy and control over work, and social protection. There is also a skills gap between the nature of tasks available on these microtask platforms and the workers’ education levels. Finally, experience does not ensure that workers have the opportunities to undertake complex and challenging tasks, and the possibilities to develop their skills and improve career prospects are limited.

Suggested Citation

  • Rani Uma & Furrer Marianne, 2019. "On-Demand Digital Economy: Can Experience Ensure Work and Income Security for Microtask Workers?," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 239(3), pages 565-597, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:jns:jbstat:v:239:y:2019:i:3:p:565-597:n:6
    DOI: 10.1515/jbnst-2018-0019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/jbnst-2018-0019
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/jbnst-2018-0019?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Goldfarb, Avi & Greenstein, Shane M. & Tucker, Catherine E. (ed.), 2015. "Economic Analysis of the Digital Economy," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226206981, August.
    2. Kässi, Otto & Lehdonvirta, Vili, 2018. "Online labour index: Measuring the online gig economy for policy and research," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 241-248.
    3. Berg, Janine., 2016. "Income security in the on-demand economy : findings and policy lessons from a survey of crowdworkers," ILO Working Papers 994906483402676, International Labour Organization.
    4. Leimeister, Jan Marco & Durward, David & Zogaj, Shkodran, 2016. "Crowd Worker in Deutschland: Eine empirische Studie zum Arbeitsumfeld auf externen Crowdsourcing-Plattformen," Study / edition der Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Düsseldorf, volume 127, number 323, March.
    5. Siou Chew Kuek & Cecilia Paradi-Guilford & Toks Fayomi & Saori Imaizumi & Panos Ipeirotis & Patricia Pina & Manpreet Singh, 2015. "The Global Opportunity in Online Outsourcing," World Bank Publications - Reports 22284, The World Bank Group.
    6. Ajay Agrawal & John Horton & Nicola Lacetera & Elizabeth Lyons, 2015. "Digitization and the Contract Labor Market: A Research Agenda," NBER Chapters, in: Economic Analysis of the Digital Economy, pages 219-250, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Sundararajan, Arun, 2016. "The Sharing Economy: The End of Employment and the Rise of Crowd-Based Capitalism," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262034573, April.
    8. Michele Cantarella & Chiara Strozzi, 2018. "Labour market effects of crowdwork in the US and EU: an empirical investigation," Center for Economic Research (RECent) 140, University of Modena and Reggio E., Dept. of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    9. Borchert, Kathrin & Hirth, Matthias & Kummer, Michael E. & Laitenberger, Ulrich & Slivko, Olga & Viete, Steffen, 2018. "Unemployment and online labor," ZEW Discussion Papers 18-023, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    10. Michele Cantarella & Chiara Strozzi, 2018. "Labour market effects of crowdwork in US and EU: an empirical investigation," Department of Economics 0139, University of Modena and Reggio E., Faculty of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    11. Lawrence F. Katz & Alan B. Krueger, 2016. "The Rise and Nature of Alternative Work Arrangements in the United States, 1995-2015," Working Papers 603, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    12. Johnston, Hannah & Land-Kazlauskas, Chris., 2018. "Organizing on-demand representation, voice, and collective bargaining in the gig economy," ILO Working Papers 994981993502676, International Labour Organization.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lars Hornuf & Daniel Vrankar, 2022. "Hourly Wages in Crowdworking: A Meta-Analysis," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 64(5), pages 553-573, October.
    2. Braesemann, Fabian & Stephany, Fabian & Teutloff, Ole & Kässi, Otto & Graham, Mark & Lehdonvirta, Vili, 2021. "The polarisation of remote work," SocArXiv q8a96, Center for Open Science.
    3. Fabian Braesemann & Fabian Stephany & Ole Teutloff & Otto Kassi & Mark Graham & Vili Lehdonvirta, 2021. "The global polarisation of remote work," Papers 2108.13356, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2022.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Heiland, Heiner, 2020. "Workers' Voice in platform labour: An Overview," WSI Studies 21, The Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI), Hans Böckler Foundation.
    2. Braesemann, Fabian & Stephany, Fabian & Teutloff, Ole & Kässi, Otto & Graham, Mark & Lehdonvirta, Vili, 2021. "The polarisation of remote work," SocArXiv q8a96, Center for Open Science.
    3. Azzellini, Dario & Greer, Ian & Umney, Charles, 2019. "Limits of the platform economy: Digitalization and marketization in live music," Working Paper Forschungsförderung 154, Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Düsseldorf.
    4. Lars Hornuf & Daniel Vrankar, 2022. "Hourly Wages in Crowdworking: A Meta-Analysis," CESifo Working Paper Series 9540, CESifo.
    5. Alexander Cuntz, 2018. "Creators' Income Situation in the Digital Age," WIPO Economic Research Working Papers 49, World Intellectual Property Organization - Economics and Statistics Division.
    6. Maier, Michael F. & Viete, Steffen & Ody, Margard, 2017. "Plattformbasierte Erwerbsarbeit: Stand der empirischen Forschung," IZA Research Reports 81, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Fabian Braesemann & Fabian Stephany & Ole Teutloff & Otto Kassi & Mark Graham & Vili Lehdonvirta, 2021. "The global polarisation of remote work," Papers 2108.13356, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2022.
    8. Werner Eichhorst & Ulf Rinne, 2017. "Digital Challenges for the Welfare State," CESifo Forum, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 18(04), pages 03-08, December.
    9. Maria Cesira Urzi Brancati & Annarosa Pesole & Enrique Fernandez Macias, 2019. "Digital Labour Platforms in Europe: Numbers, Profiles, and Employment Status of Platform Workers," JRC Research Reports JRC117330, Joint Research Centre.
    10. Kässi, Otto & Lehdonvirta, Vili, 2018. "Online labour index: Measuring the online gig economy for policy and research," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 241-248.
    11. Melia, Elvis, 2020. "African jobs in the digital era: Export options with a focus on online labour," IDOS Discussion Papers 3/2020, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    12. Aleksynska, Mariya & Bastrakova, Anastasia & Kharchenko, Natalia Nikolaevna, 2019. "Working Conditions on Digital Labour Platforms: Evidence from a Leading Labour Supply Economy," IZA Discussion Papers 12245, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Ni Huang & Gordon Burtch & Yili Hong & Paul A. Pavlou, 2020. "Unemployment and Worker Participation in the Gig Economy: Evidence from an Online Labor Market," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(2), pages 431-448, June.
    14. Lars Hornuf & Daniel Vrankar, 2022. "Hourly Wages in Crowdworking: A Meta-Analysis," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 64(5), pages 553-573, October.
    15. Brian Fabo & Jovana Karanovic & Katerina Dukova, 2017. "In search of an adequate European policy response to the platform economy," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 23(2), pages 163-175, May.
    16. Ostoj Izabela, 2024. "Platform-mediated work in Poland: Worker characteristics and prevalence in society," International Journal of Management and Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of World Economy, vol. 60(2), pages 132-146.
    17. Borchert, Kathrin & Hirth, Matthias & Kummer, Michael E. & Laitenberger, Ulrich & Slivko, Olga & Viete, Steffen, 2018. "Unemployment and online labor," ZEW Discussion Papers 18-023, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    18. Janine Berg & Miriam A. Cherry & Uma Rani, 2019. "Digital labour platforms: a need for international regulation?," Revista de Economía Laboral - Spanish Journal of Labour Economics, Asociación Española de Economía Laboral - AEET, vol. 16, pages 104-128.
    19. Lehdonvirta, Vili, 2018. "Flexibility in the Gig Economy: Managing Time on Three Online Piecework Platforms," SocArXiv k3hy4, Center for Open Science.
    20. Mourelatos, Evangelos, 2021. "Personality and Ethics on Online Labor Markets: How mood influences ethical perceptions," EconStor Preprints 244735, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    crowdwork; digital labour; online platforms; working conditions; skills; education; learning;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J32 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions
    • J81 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Working Conditions

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:jns:jbstat:v:239:y:2019:i:3:p:565-597:n:6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.