Unemployment and Worker Participation in the Gig Economy: Evidence from An Online Labor Market

Information Systems Research, Forthcoming

51 Pages Posted: 27 Jan 2018 Last revised: 22 Sep 2019

See all articles by Ni Huang

Ni Huang

Miami Herbert Business School, University of Miami

Gordon Burtch

Boston University - Questrom School of Business

Yili Hong

University of Miami Herbert Business School

Paul A. Pavlou

University of Houston - C.T. Bauer College of Business

Date Written: January 18, 2017

Abstract

The gig economy has low barriers to entry, enabling flexible work arrangements and allowing workers to engage in contingent employment, whenever, and in some cases, such as online labor markets, wherever workers desire. The growth of the gig economy has been partly attributed to technological advancements that enable flexible work environments. In this study, we consider the role of an alternative driver, economic downturns, and associated financial stressors in the offline economy—e.g., unemployment. As the exact nature of the relationship between online labor supply and offline unemployment is not immediately clear, in this work, we seek to quantify the relationship, exploring heterogeneity across a variety of county-specific characteristics. We study these relationships in the context of a leading online labor market, combining data on the participation of workers residing in counties across the United States with county-level data on unemployment from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Our results demonstrate a positive and significant association between local (county) unemployment in the traditional offline labor market and the supply of online workers residing in the same county, as well as significantly larger volumes of online project bidding activity from workers in the same county. Specifically, we estimate that a 1% increase in county unemployment is associated with a 21.8% increase in the volume of county residents actively working online at the platform. Further, our results suggest significant heterogeneity in the relationship, such that a significantly larger supply of online labor manifests when unemployment occurs in counties characterized by better Internet access, younger and more educated populations, and populations whose social ties are dispersed over a wider geographic area. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications for workers, online labor markets, and policy makers.

Keywords: Gig Economy, Online Labor Markets, Local Market, Unemployment Rate

Suggested Citation

Huang, Ni and Burtch, Gordon and Hong, Yili and Pavlou, Paul A., Unemployment and Worker Participation in the Gig Economy: Evidence from An Online Labor Market (January 18, 2017). Information Systems Research, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3105090 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3105090

Ni Huang

Miami Herbert Business School, University of Miami ( email )

United States

HOME PAGE: http://nihuang.me/

Gordon Burtch

Boston University - Questrom School of Business ( email )

595 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02215
United States

Yili Hong (Contact Author)

University of Miami Herbert Business School ( email )

P.O. Box 248126
Florida
Coral Gables, FL 33124
United States

Paul A. Pavlou

University of Houston - C.T. Bauer College of Business

Houston, TX 77204-6021
United States

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