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Do Digital Skill Certificates Help New Workers Enter the Market? Evidence from an Online Labour Platform

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  • Otto Kässi
  • Vili Lehdonvirta

Abstract

We study the effects of a voluntary skill certification scheme in an online freelancing labour market. We show that obtaining skill certificates increases freelancers’ earnings. This effect is not driven by increased freelancer productivity but by decreased employer uncertainty. The increase in freelancer earnings is mostly realised through an increase in the value of the projects won rather than an increase in the number of projects won. Moreover, we find evidence for negative selection to completing skill certificates, which suggests that the freelancers who complete more skill certificates are in a more disadvantaged position in the labour market.

Suggested Citation

  • Otto Kässi & Vili Lehdonvirta, 2019. "Do Digital Skill Certificates Help New Workers Enter the Market? Evidence from an Online Labour Platform," CESifo Working Paper Series 7810, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7810
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    Cited by:

    1. Braesemann, Fabian & Stephany, Fabian & Teutloff, Ole & Kässi, Otto & Graham, Mark & Lehdonvirta, Vili, 2021. "The polarisation of remote work," SocArXiv q8a96, Center for Open Science.
    2. Pouliakas, Konstantinos & Ranieri, Antonio, 2022. "Hybrid (Solo)Self-Employment and Upskilling: Is Online Platform Work a Path Towards Entrepreneurship?," IZA Discussion Papers 15344, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Guerrero, Maribel & Heaton, Sohvi & Urbano, David, 2021. "Building universities’ intrapreneurial capabilities in the digital era: The role and impacts of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    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. Wood, Alex & Lehdonvirta, Vili, 2021. "Antagonism beyond employment: how the ‘subordinated agency’ of labour platforms generates conflict in the remote gig economy," SocArXiv y943w, Center for Open Science.
    6. 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.
    7. Martindale, Nicholas & Lehdonvirta, Vili, 2021. "Can labour market digitalization increase social mobility? Evidence from a European survey of online platform workers," SocArXiv 54aqh, Center for Open Science.
    8. Susan Athey & Emil Palikot, 2024. "The value of non-traditional credentials in the labor market," Papers 2405.00247, arXiv.org.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    signaling; human capital; skill validation; skill certificates; micro-credentials; online freelancing; platforms; gig economy; computer-based assessment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • 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
    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General

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