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Crowdworking: working with or against the crowd?

Author

Listed:
  • Georg Jäger

    (University of Graz)

  • Laura S. Zilian

    (University of Graz)

  • Christian Hofer

    (University of Graz)

  • Manfred Füllsack

    (University of Graz)

Abstract

Our current labour market is affected by massive changes like digitalization, automation and globalization, which gives rise to completely new forms of generating income. One such innovative idea is crowdworking, where many people (a so-called crowd) work on individual tasks for a firm in a way similar to a self-employed freelancer. This form of occupation is a recent development but gains acceptance, esteem and relevance quite rapidly. The risk potential for wage dumping and (self-) exploitation is still unknown. A crucial, but often neglected fact about crowdworking is that it exists in many variants which have completely different properties. We investigate how much these distinct versions of crowdworking differ by using an agent-based computer simulation. Wages, job security, workforce composition and other relevant indicators are calculated by simulating the micro scale to gain aggregated information on the macro-scale. We find that there is a significant difference between the versions of crowdworking. Our main finding is that especially variants where the crowdworkers are able to set their own wages are susceptible to wage dumping. Simulations suggest that this phenomenon is independent of the specifics of the labour market but rather a fundamental property of those variants of crowdworking.

Suggested Citation

  • Georg Jäger & Laura S. Zilian & Christian Hofer & Manfred Füllsack, 2019. "Crowdworking: working with or against the crowd?," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 14(4), pages 761-788, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jeicoo:v:14:y:2019:i:4:d:10.1007_s11403-019-00266-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s11403-019-00266-1
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    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. Oleg Bazaluk & Muhammad Ataur Rahman & Nurul Mohammad Zayed & Md. Faisal-E-Alam & Vitalii Nitsenko & Lesia Kucher, 2024. "Crowdsourcing review: the crowd workers’ perspective," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 51(3), pages 647-666, September.
    3. Xiaochuan Song & Graham H. Lowman & Peter Harms, 2020. "Justice for the Crowd: Organizational Justice and Turnover in Crowd-Based Labor," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-37, November.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Crowdworking; Gig economy; Agent-based model; Wage dumping; Digitalization; Labour market; Working poor; Exploitation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C63 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Computational Techniques
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J28 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Safety; Job Satisfaction; Related Public Policy

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