Democratizing the Economy or Introducing Economic Risk? Gig Work During the COVID-19 Pandemic

IF 4.4 2区 社会学 Q1 INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS & LABOR
Daniel Auguste, Stephen Roll, Mathieu Despard
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Abstract

Though the growth of the gig economy has coincided with increased economic precarity in the new economy, we know less about the extent to which gig work (compared with other self-employment arrangements and non-gig work) may fuel economic insecurity among American households. We fill this gap in the literature by drawing on a sample of 4,756 workers from a unique national survey capturing economic hardships among non-standard workers like app- and platform-based gig and other self-employed workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results from generalized boosted regression modeling, utilizing machine learning to account for potential endogeneity, demonstrated that gig workers experienced significantly greater economic hardship than non-gig and other self-employed workers during the pandemic. For example, gig workers were more likely to experience food insecurity, miss bill payments, and suffer income loss compared with non-gig and other self-employed workers during the pandemic. While household liquid assets endowment prior to the pandemic reduced the effect of gig work on experiencing economic hardships, having dependent children in the household increased this effect. Thus, contrary to democratizing entrepreneurship opportunities, these findings suggest that the expansion of the gig economy may exacerbate labor market inequality, where wealth-endowed families are protected against adverse economic consequences of the gig economy. We discuss the implications of these findings for inequality-reducing labor market policies, including policies that account for the interconnectedness of family and the labor market.
经济民主化还是引入经济风险?COVID-19大流行期间的零工工作
尽管零工经济的增长与新经济中经济不稳定性的增加同时发生,但我们对零工工作(与其他自雇安排和非零工工作相比)可能在多大程度上加剧美国家庭的经济不安全感知之甚少。我们从一项独特的全国调查中抽取了4756名工人的样本,填补了这一文献空白,该调查捕捉了COVID-19大流行期间非标准工人(如基于应用和平台的零工和其他个体经营者)的经济困难。利用机器学习来解释潜在内禀性的广义增强回归模型的结果表明,在疫情期间,零工工人比非零工工人和其他个体经营工人经历了更大的经济困难。例如,与非零工和其他个体户相比,在疫情期间,零工工人更有可能经历粮食不安全、拖欠账单,并遭受收入损失。虽然大流行前的家庭流动资产禀赋减少了零工工作对经历经济困难的影响,但家庭中有受抚养子女则增加了这种影响。因此,与使创业机会民主化相反,这些研究结果表明,零工经济的扩张可能会加剧劳动力市场的不平等,在这种情况下,富有的家庭受到保护,免受零工经济的不利经济后果。我们讨论了这些发现对减少不平等的劳动力市场政策的影响,包括考虑家庭和劳动力市场相互联系的政策。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
5.90
自引率
24.10%
发文量
21
期刊介绍: For over 30 years, Work and Occupations has published rigorous social science research on the human dynamics of the workplace, employment, and society from an international, interdisciplinary perspective. Work and Occupations provides you with a broad perspective on the workplace, examining international approaches to work-related issues as well as insights from scholars in a variety of fields, including: anthropology, demography, education, government administration, history, industrial relations, labour economics, management, psychology, and sociology. In addition to regular features including research notes, review essays, and book reviews.
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