IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/elg/eechap/18641_4.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

Measuring the platform economy: Different approaches to estimating the size of the online platform workforce

In: A Modern Guide To Labour and the Platform Economy

Author

Listed:
  • Agnieszka Piasna

Abstract

The potential transformation of labour markets by the emergence of online labour platforms has triggered an intense academic, media and policy debate, but its true scale remains speculation. To understand current trends and formulate meaningful policy recommendations we need good quality data on the prevalence of platform as well as other forms of internet-mediated work. This chapter provides a critical review of different approaches to measuring platform work; that is, estimating the scale of engagement in platform work in the general population. The aim is to examine the main obstacles encountered in previous studies, the reasons for surprising or contradictory results and possible sources of error, but also the lessons that can be learned for future research. This is illustrated with key research in this area, ranging from large projects conducted by national statistical offices to smaller scale independent research, from national to (nearly) global scale.

Suggested Citation

  • Agnieszka Piasna, 2021. "Measuring the platform economy: Different approaches to estimating the size of the online platform workforce," Chapters, in: Jan Drahokoupil & Kurt Vandaele (ed.), A Modern Guide To Labour and the Platform Economy, chapter 4, pages 66-80, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    • Handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:18641_4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781788975094/9781788975094.00013.xml
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:18641_4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Darrel McCalla (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.e-elgar.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.