IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ilrrev/v72y2019i1p39-68.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Too Good to Be True? A Comment on Hall and Krueger’s Analysis of the Labor Market for Uber’s Driver-Partners

Author

Listed:
  • Janine Berg
  • Hannah Johnston

Abstract

In their comment on the article on Uber driver-partners by Jonathan Hall and Alan Krueger, the authors analyze the article’s methodological problems, including sample bias, leading questions, selective reporting of findings, and an overestimation of driver earnings, which do not account for the full range of job-related expenses and is based on outdated data. The authors also argue that Hall and Krueger make unsubstantiated claims that extend beyond the scope of their research and ignore a rapidly growing literature that is critical of the Uber model as well as the broader for-hire vehicle industry in which Uber operates. As policymakers grapple with how to respond to transport network companies, the authors argue that a fuller understanding of the costs and benefits of services such as Uber is critical for making informed policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Janine Berg & Hannah Johnston, 2019. "Too Good to Be True? A Comment on Hall and Krueger’s Analysis of the Labor Market for Uber’s Driver-Partners," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 72(1), pages 39-68, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:72:y:2019:i:1:p:39-68
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ilr.sagepub.com/content/72/1/39.abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Friedland, Julian & Balkin, David B., 2023. "When gig workers become essential: Leveraging customer moral self-awareness beyond COVID-19," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 66(2), pages 181-190.
    2. Sanae Tashiro & Stephen Choi, 2021. "Labor market outcomes under digital platform business models in the sharing economy: the case of the taxi services industry," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 56(4), pages 240-251, October.
    3. Gideon D. Markman & Marvin Lieberman & Michael Leiblein & Li‐Qun Wei & Yonggui Wang, 2021. "The Distinctive Domain of the Sharing Economy: Definitions, Value Creation, and Implications for Research," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(4), pages 927-948, June.
    4. Angela Garcia Calvo & Martin Kenney & John Zysman, 2023. "Understanding work in the online platform economy: the narrow, the broad, and the systemic perspectives," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 32(4), pages 795-814.
    5. Oliver Alexander & Jeff Borland & Andrew Charlton & Amit Singh, 2022. "The Labour Market for Uber Drivers in Australia," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 55(2), pages 177-194, June.
    6. Michael David Maffie, 2023. "The mythology of ‘Big Data’ as a source of corporate power," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 61(3), pages 674-696, September.
    7. Filippo Belloc, 2019. "Why Isn't Uber Worker-Managed? A Model of Digital Platform Cooperatives," CESifo Working Paper Series 7708, CESifo.
    8. Michael David Maffie, 2023. "Becoming a pirate: Independence as an alternative to exit in the gig economy," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 61(1), pages 46-67, March.
    9. Ashley Baber, 2024. "Labour Market Engineers: Reconceptualising Labour Market Intermediaries with the Rise of the Gig Economy in the United States," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 38(3), pages 723-743, June.
    10. Oliver Alexander & Jeff Borland & Andrew Charlton & Amit Singh, 2021. "Uber down under: The labour market for drivers in Australia," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2021n18, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    11. Antonio ALOISI & Valerio DE STEFANO, 2020. "Regulation and the future of work: The employment relationship as an innovation facilitator," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 159(1), pages 47-69, March.
    12. Syed Tariq Anwar, 2023. "The sharing economy and collaborative consumption: Strategic issues and global entrepreneurial opportunities," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 60-88, March.
    13. Ismael Gálvez-Iniesta & José L. Groizard & Ferran Portella-Carbó, 2023. "Sharing my place: the local labor market impact of the P2P technology shock," DEA Working Papers 97, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Departament d'Economía Aplicada.
    14. Michael David Maffie, 2020. "Are we ‘sharing’ or ‘gig‐ing’? A classification system for online platforms," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(6), pages 536-555, November.

    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:sae:ilrrev:v:72:y:2019:i:1:p:39-68. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu .

    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.