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Title: App-Based Hardship: Three Essays on Precarity and Participation Among United States Gig Workers
Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis
Publication Year: 2022
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Abstract: Platform work is still a relatively new feature of US labor markets. The limitations of existing data sources have made it challenging to study these workers. This dissertation examines the economic conditions and labor market outcomes experienced by these workers using the underutilized Federal Reserve’s Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED). Chapter one shows that platform workers have lower and more volatile household incomes, hampering their ability to meet their economic obligations. This economic precarity is most pronounced for those who combine platform work with informal work, like dog walking, babysitting, or day labor. Chapter two shows that platform work tends to be one-off employment, with only 21% of workers who participate in one year also participating in the subsequent year. It also shows that platform workers experience additional employment churn in formal labor markets. Again, these negative outcomes are magnified for those who also do informal work. The third chapter argues that poor outcomes in formal labor markets and lacking social safety nets drive participation in platform work. It shows that a 1% increase in the state-level unemployment rate corresponds with a 0.53% increase in the probability that a worker will do platform work. Together, these results characterize platform labor as an exploitative set of labor relations in the sense that it attracts the economically vulnerable, quickly churns through them, and does not leave them any better off for their participation. To address this, I argue that platform workers be incorporated into existing social safety net schemes, like unemployment insurance, to address their economic vulnerability directly while providing them with more viable alternatives to platform labor.
Url: https://www.proquest.com/docview/2778305414?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true
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Authors: Conner, Kevin Lane
Institution: The University of Utah
Department: Economics
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Pages: 1-140
Data Collections: IPUMS CPS
Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure
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