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The Digital Market for Local Services: A one-night stand for workers? An example from the on-demand economy

Author

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  • De Groen, Willem Pieter
  • Maselli, Ilaria
  • Fabo, Brian

Abstract

This case study provides a snapshot of the dynamics in the digital market for locally provided personal services. Based on a case study for a Belgium platform with 14,113 identified workers and 9,459 posted tasks, the findings suggest that the current intermediation is inefficient. Only a limited share of the tasks posted on the platform are being completed, whereas the characteristics of the not-completed tasks are fairly limited. Moreover, just a small share of the workers participating in the platform is actually performing the completed tasks. Their average earnings per hour are in most cases above the minimum wage and even above the median wage in the offline market. At the present time, however, the limited earnings for individual workers prevent this mode of working from becoming an alternative to a conventional job. In addition to the standard determinants of workers’ earnings (e.g. gender, age, occupation, etc.), the characteristics and evaluation mechanism of the platform have a large influence on the distribution of tasks and earnings.

Suggested Citation

  • De Groen, Willem Pieter & Maselli, Ilaria & Fabo, Brian, 2016. "The Digital Market for Local Services: A one-night stand for workers? An example from the on-demand economy," CEPS Papers 11438, Centre for European Policy Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:eps:cepswp:11438
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    File URL: https://www.ceps.eu/system/files/SR%20No%20133%20Sharing%20Economy%20for%20JRC.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Maselli,Ilaria & Fabo, Brian, 2015. "Digital workers by design? An example from the on-demand economy," CEPS Papers 11030, Centre for European Policy Studies.
    2. Maselli, Ilaria & Lenaerts, Karolien & Beblavý, Miroslav, 2016. "Five things we need to know about the on-demand economy," CEPS Papers 11209, Centre for European Policy Studies.
    3. Jonathan V. Hall & Alan B. Krueger, 2015. "An Analysis of the Labor Market for Uber's Driver-Partners in the United States," Working Papers 587, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
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    Cited by:

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    2. Serpil ÇİĞDEM, 2019. "Endüstri 4.0 ve Dijital Emek Platformlarının İnsana Yakışır İş Bağlamında Değerlendirilmesi," Journal of Social Policy Conferences, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 0(77), pages 157-199, December.
    3. 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.
    4. Barbara Švagan, 2023. "Understanding the paradox of high job quality evaluations among platform workers," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.
    5. Fabo, B., 2017. "Towards an understanding of job matching using web data," Other publications TiSEM b8b877f2-ae6a-495f-b6cc-9, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    6. Justin Larner & Åke Walldius, 2019. "The Platform Review Alliance Board: designing an organizational model to bring together producers and consumers in the review and commissioning of platform software," Journal of Organization Design, Springer;Organizational Design Community, vol. 8(1), pages 1-11, December.
    7. Herrmann, Andrea M. & Zaal, Petra M. & Chappin, Maryse M.H. & Schemmann, Brita & Lühmann, Amelie, 2023. "“We don't need no (higher) education” - How the gig economy challenges the education-income paradigm," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 186(PA).
    8. Heiland, Heiner, 2020. "Workers' Voice in platform labour: An Overview," WSI Studies 21, The Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI), Hans Böckler Foundation.
    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. Lars Hornuf & Daniel Vrankar, 2022. "Hourly Wages in Crowdworking: A Meta-Analysis," CESifo Working Paper Series 9540, CESifo.
    11. Lukac, Martin & Grow, André, 2020. "Reputation systems and recruitment in online labor markets: insights from an agent-based model," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 114454, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Martin Lukac & André Grow, 2021. "Reputation systems and recruitment in online labor markets: insights from an agent-based model," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 207-229, May.
    13. Brian Fabo & Miroslav BEBLAVY & Karolien LENAERTS & Zachary KILHOFFER, 2017. "An overview of European Platforms: Scope and Business Models," JRC Research Reports JRC109190, Joint Research Centre.
    14. Araz Taeihagh, 2017. "Crowdsourcing: a new tool for policy-making?," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 50(4), pages 629-647, December.
    15. Chris Warhurst & Wil Hunt, 2019. "The Digitalisation of Future Work and Employment. Possible impact and policy responses," JRC Working Papers on Labour, Education and Technology 2019-05, Joint Research Centre.
    16. Arianna Tassinari & Vincenzo Maccarrone, 2017. "The mobilisation of gig economy couriers in Italy," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 23(3), pages 353-357, August.

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