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Measuring the impacts of labor in the platform economy: new work created, old work reorganized, and value creation reconfigured
[Probing for informal work activity]

Author

Listed:
  • Dafna Bearson
  • Martin Kenney
  • John Zysman

Abstract

Though economists have examined labor displacement due to digitization, few have considered the new work and value created. Unlike employment relations that brought workers together on the assembly line or in an office in a previous era, platforms enable a greater, more dispersed, and complex division of labor. New and reconfigured types of labor enabled by platforms create identification and measurement challenges. Previous studies of platforms invariably focused on specific organizational forms such as sharing or gigs. They built taxonomies based on the platform's organization – few considered the scope and scale of platform-enabled value creation. To better understand changing labor arrangements in the 21st century, this article introduces a taxonomy to systematically understand work, employment, and value creation in the platform economy. We consider all of the platform-enabled value creation activities including old work displaced or reorganized to new work created. We provide suggestive evidence for the utility of our framework through case studies of Etsy and Amazon Self-Publishing in the United States.

Suggested Citation

  • Dafna Bearson & Martin Kenney & John Zysman, 2021. "Measuring the impacts of labor in the platform economy: new work created, old work reorganized, and value creation reconfigured [Probing for informal work activity]," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 30(3), pages 536-563.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:indcch:v:30:y:2021:i:3:p:536-563.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/icc/dtaa046
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Laura Reynolds & Dylan Henderson & Chen Xu & Laura Norris, 2021. "Digitalisation and the foundational economy: A digital opportunity or a digital divide for less-developed regions?," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 36(6), pages 451-467, September.
    2. 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.
    3. Gala, Kaushik & Schwab, Andreas & Mueller, Brandon A., 2024. "Star entrepreneurs on digital platforms: Heavy-tailed performance distributions and their generative mechanisms," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 39(1).
    4. Francesco Angelini & Luca V. Ballestra & Massimiliano Castellani, 2022. "Digital leisure and the gig economy: a two-sector model of growth," Papers 2212.02119, arXiv.org.
    5. Victo José da Silva Neto & Tulio Chiarini & Leonardo Costa Ribeiro & Igor Santos Tupy, 2022. "The global geography of digital platforms: towards platforms international locational determinants," Textos para Discussão Cedeplar-UFMG 650, Cedeplar, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.
    6. Livia Sz. Oláh & Rudolf Richter & Irena Kotowska, 2023. "Introduction to the Special Collection on The new roles of women and men and implications for families and societies," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 48(29), pages 849-866.
    7. Helwing Veronique & Verfürth Philip & Franz Martin, 2023. "Trucking (un)limited – the impact of digital platforms on labour in production networks of logistics," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 67(4), pages 177-188, December.

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