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Research papers on The gig economy

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  1. Automation and New Tasks: How Technology Displaces and Reinstates Labor

    Daron Acemoğlu, Pascual Restrepo · 2019 · The Journal of Economic Perspectives · 2,441 citations

    We present a framework for understanding the effects of automation and other types of technological changes on labor demand, and use it to interpret changes in US employment over the recent past. At the center of our framework is the allocation of tasks to capital and labor—the task content of production. Automation, which enables capital to replace labor in tasks it was previously engaged in, shifts the task content of production against labor because of a displacement effect. As a result, automation always reduces the labor share in value added and may reduce labor demand even as it raises productivity. The effects of automation are counterbalanced by the creation of new tasks in which lab

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  2. Platform labor: on the gendered and racialized exploitation of low-income service work in the ‘on-demand’ economy

    Niels van Doorn · 2017 · Information Communication & Society · 925 citations

    How does one value something one cannot and often does not want to see? How do contemporary digital platforms and their infrastructures of connectivity, evaluation, and surveillance affect this relationship between value and visibility, when it is mediated through the problem of labor as at once a commodity and a lived experience? And how can these infrastructures be mobilized in projects that aim to build different kinds of platforms – the kinds that support the revaluation low-income service work? This essay addresses these questions by examining the gendered, racialized, and classed distribution of opportunities and vulnerabilities associated with digitally mediated service work, or what

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  4. Between a rock and a hard place: Freedom, flexibility, precarity and vulnerability in the gig economy in Africa

    Mohammad Amir Anwar, Mark Graham · 2020 · Competition & Change · 415 citations

    The world of work is changing. Communications technologies and digital platforms have enabled some types of work to be delivered from anywhere in the world by anyone with a computer and an internet connection. This digitally-mediated work brings jobs to parts of the world traditionally characterized by low incomes and high unemployment rates. As such, it has been touted by governments, third-sector organizations, and the private sector as a novel strategy of economic development. Drawing on a four-year study with 65 workers in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and Uganda, we examine the development implications of the gig economy on labour in Africa. We offer four analytical development di

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  5. Hidden transcripts of the gig economy: labour agency and the new art of resistance among African gig workers

    Mohammad Amir Anwar, Mark Graham · 2019 · Environment and Planning A Economy and Space · 342 citations

    In this article, we examine how remote gig workers in Africa exercise agency to earn and sustain their livelihoods in the gig economy. In addition to the rewards reaped by gig workers, they also face significant risks, such as precarious working conditions and algorithmic workplace monitoring, thus constraining workers’ autonomy and bargaining power. Gig workers, as a result, are expected to have fewer opportunities to exert their agency – particularly so for workers in Africa, where the high proportion of informal economy and a lack of employment opportunities in local labour markets already constrain workers’ ability to earn livelihoods. Instead, we demonstrate how remote workers in Africa

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  6. Conceptualizing human resource management in the gig economy

    Jeroen Meijerink, Anne Keegan · 2019 · Journal of Managerial Psychology · 314 citations

    Purpose Although it is transforming the meaning of employment for many people, little is known about the implications of the gig economy for human resource management (HRM) theory and practice. The purpose of this paper is to conceptually explore the notion of HRM in the gig economy, where intermediary platform firms design and implement HRM activities while simultaneously trying to avoid the establishment of employment relationships with gig workers. Design/methodology/approach To conceptualize HRM in the gig economy, the authors offer a novel ecosystem perspective to develop propositions on the role and implementation of HRM activities in the gig economy. Findings The authors show that HRM

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  7. Platform Capitalism’s Hidden Abode: Producing Data Assets in the Gig Economy

    Niels van Doorn, Adam Badger · 2020 · Antipode · 270 citations

    Abstract In this article, we argue that the governance of gig work under conditions of financialised platform capitalism is characterised by a process that we call “dual value production”: the monetary value produced by the service provided is augmented by the use and speculative value of the data produced before, during, and after service provision. App‐governed gig workers hence function as pivotal conduits in software systems that produce digital data as a particular asset class. We reflect on the production of data assets and the unequal distribution of opportunities for their valorisation, after which we survey a number of strategies seeking data‐centric worker empowerment. These strate

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  8. Should we take the gig economy seriously?

    Joshua Healy, Daniel J. Nicholson, Andreas Pekarek · 2017 · Labour & Industry a journal of the social and economic relations of work · 245 citations

    The ‘gig economy’ has emerged rapidly as a form of service delivery that challenges existing business models, labour-management practices, and regulations. The ways in which platform companies transact with workers, in particular, has created a burgeoning public interest, but has yet to give rise to a corresponding academic literature. In this paper, we ask whether the gig economy deserves to be a subject of employment relations scholarship, given its current dimensions and likely future. We argue that academic analysis is needed, to better understand the power dynamics operating within the gig economy and how these are testing existing norms and institutions. We discuss two mains ways that

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  9. Migration and Migrant Labour in the Gig Economy: An Intervention

    Niels van Doorn, Fabian Ferrari, Mark Graham · 2022 · Work Employment and Society · 231 citations

    In urban gig economies around the world, platform labour is predominantly migrant labour, yet research on the intersection of the gig economy and labour migration remains scant. Our experience with two action research projects, spanning six cities on four continents, has taught us how platform work impacts the structural vulnerability of migrant workers. This leads us to two claims that should recalibrate the gig economy research agenda. First, we argue that platform labour simultaneously degrades working conditions while offering migrants much-needed opportunities to improve their livelihoods. Second, we contend that the reclassification of gig workers as employees is by itself not sufficie

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  10. The Gig Economy and Contingent Work

    Molly Tran, Rosemary K. Sokas · 2017 · Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine · 206 citations

    The gig economy describes forms of contingent work arrangements that require digital platforms, representing an evolution in contingent work, both in moving up the educational scale and in increased visibility. It has engaged many workers who are highly educated and might previously have been in traditional employer–employee relationships, and appears to increase their vulnerability to wage theft, independent contractor misclassification, job insecurity, and lack of occupational health protections. As occupational health physicians, our need to develop, evaluate, and implement interventions to address the needs of workers in non-traditional employment relationships is growing. BACKGROUND Non

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  11. Gig work as migrant work: The platformization of migration infrastructure

    Niels van Doorn, Darsana Vijay · 2021 · Environment and Planning A Economy and Space · 188 citations

    With markets concentrating predominantly in and around large cities, gig platforms across the globe seem to depend as much on the cheap labor of migrants and minorities as on investment capital and permissive governments. Accordingly, we argue that there is an urgent need to center migrant experiences and the role of migrant labor in gig economy research, in order to generate a better understanding of how gig work offers certain opportunities and challenges to migrants with a variety of backgrounds and skill levels. To fill this research gap, this article examines why migrant workers in Berlin, Amsterdam, and New York take up platform labor and how they incorporate it into their everyday liv

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  12. Hustle and Gig: Struggling and Surviving in the Sharing Economy

    Michael Dunn · 2019 · Social Forces · 146 citations

    We know that contemporary workers face changes in the workplace driven by rapid increased in technical efficiencies (Gomes 2019), decreased expectations of loyalty between workers and employers (Sweet and Meiksins 2015), and weakened policies and rules governing the workplace and worker rights (Kalleberg 2015). Together, these forces are re-shaping the ways in which people are pursuing work; altering the ways they think about employment and charting a path of greater precarity. Against this backdrop, the rapid evolution of information and communication technologies (ICTs) are playing central roles. For example, advancements in connectivity (e.g., internet infrastructure and access), software

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  13. Platform work‐lives in the gig economy: Recentering work–family research

    Al James · 2024 · Gender, Work & Organization · 57 citations

    Abstract Crowdwork platforms have been widely celebrated as challenging gendered labor market inequalities through new digitally mediated possibilities for reconciling work, home, and family. This paper interrogates those claims and explores the wider implications of digital labor platforms for an expansive work–family research agenda stubbornly rooted in formal modes of employment in the “analogue” economy. Based on ethnographic research with women platform workers in the UK (using PeoplePerHour, Upwork, Freelancer, Fiverr, and Copify), the paper asks: what are women crowdworkers' lived experiences of integrating paid work and family relative to formal employment? And what

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  14. Uber in the Portuguese gig economy: a laboratory for platform capitalism

    Emanuele Leonardi, Giorgio Pirina · 2020 · Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation · 28 citations

    The paper frames the emergence of the Portuguese gig economy within the broader process of platformisation of work in Europe as set in motion by the neoliberal turn at a global scale. Against this background the case of Portugal in general and that of Lisbon in particular are analysed to show both their consistency with the general trends of the European Union's economic dynamics and their irreducible peculiarities. These latter particularities, and especially the so-called ‘Uber Law’, are discussed in connection with the hypothesis of a specifically Portuguese variety of the gig economy.

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  16. Solving the ‘Gig-saw’? Collective Rights and Platform Work

    Michael Doherty, Valentina Franca · 2020 · Industrial Law Journal · 14 citations

    Abstract There are few topics in contemporary labour law scholarship that have generated more literature than work in the so-called ‘platform economy’. To date, much work has focussed on the question of defining the personal scope of the employment relationship and on the problems of using existing classifications of employment status in the context of work organised via platforms. This article seeks to address the much less-discussed issue of how collective bargaining may function in the ‘platform economy’, and the role of collective labour law actors, most notably the social partners. The article argues that, rather than focussing on individual employment status and litigati

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  18. Constitutional Values in the Gig-Economy? Why Labor Law Fails at Platform Work, and What Can We Do about It?

    Zsolt Ződi, Bernát Török · 2021 · Societies · 7 citations

    Gig-work, or platform work, has been in the crosshairs of regulators since roughly the mid-2010s. The employment of an increasing number of platform workers raises a number of problems, however, there is no longer a consensus as to whether these problems are only the emergence of certain well-established labor law issues in a new guise, or completely new ones. To date, only one possible solution seems to have emerged, that of bringing platform work under the umbrella of labor law. This study argues, on the one hand, that platform work has a characteristic that was previously unknown in the world of labor relations (algorithmic and data-based work organization) and, on the other hand, that it

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  19. The Gig Economy and Labor Market Restructuring: Platform Work, Worker Classification, and the Future of Employment Relations

    V. Basil Han · 2026 · Journal of Economic Insights and Research (JEIR)

    This study examines the growth, characteristics, and labor market implications of platform mediated gig work across 24 OECD countries from 2015 to 2025. Using administrative data, labor force surveys, and platform transaction records, we document that gig work has grown to represent 4.2% of total employment and 12.8% of labor income for participants. We find substantial heterogeneity in worker experiences: approximately 35% of gig workers use platforms as primary income sources with limited alternative opportunities, while 65% engage in platform work as supplementary income alongside traditional employment or education. Earnings analysis reveals that median hourly compensation after accounti

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  21. The Evolution of Skills in Digital Platform Work: Implications for Employment in India’s Gig Economy

    Arindam Lahiri, Dr. Deepti Sehrawat, et al. · 2025 · RA JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH

    The unprecedented expansion of digital platforms has significantly transformed the landscape of employment in India, resulting in the emergence of novel forms of job opportunities, while disrupting established notions of job security and the requisite skill sets necessary for adapting to this new employment paradigm. This scholarly paper delves into the evolving characteristics of platform work within the Indian context, placing a pronounced emphasis on the critical transition of skills. Through a comprehensive examination of existing literature, coupled with an in-depth analysis of the recent trends that have emerged in this domain, this report meticulously investigates the multifaceted way

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  22. The Low-Cost Carriers as Catalysts of the Gig Economy

    Mirella Powolna, Rui Alexandre Castanho, Fabrício Pelloso Piurcosky, et al. · 2026 · Perspectivas Contemporâneas

    The expansion of Low-Cost Carriers (LCCs) has fundamentally reshaped international air travel by democratizing access and stimulating demand in previously underserved markets. Beyond their well-documented effects on pricing and competition, LCCs have become indirect yet powerful catalysts of the Gig Economy, particularly within the transport sector. By generating increased passenger volumes, expanding secondary airport ecosystems, and shifting consumer behavior toward price-sensitive, flexible travel, LCCs have created structural conditions favorable to the proliferation of platform-based, on-demand transport work, a phenomenon that in Brazil, according to data from IBGE's PNAD Contínua, gre

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  23. Ijarah Digital dalam Ekonomi Gig: Menuju Kerangka Tata Kelola Syariah pada Platform Freelancer

    Nisa Amalia, Fitri Kurniawati · 2026 · JEIZA : Jurnal Ekonomi Islam Az-Zain

    This study examines the practice of digital labor leasing on freelance platforms from the perspective of fiqh ijarah. It aims to evaluate contract validity, worker protection, and Sharia compliance while proposing a conceptual Islamic governance framework for digital labor relations in the gig economy. A qualitative method with an Islamic legal phenomenology design was employed, supported by participatory observation, document analysis, and conceptual–propositional analysis. The findings indicate that although digital ijarah generally fulfills the essential elements of a valid contract, significant concerns remain regarding wage transparency, social protection, dispute resolution, and algori

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