Alternative Insurance: Gig Work and Social Insurance Participation

Flexible gig opportunities provide a new means for workers to self-insure against negative economic shocks. Exploiting the roll-out of Uber, we use difference-in-differences, staggered treatment timing methods, and a survey experiment to show that access to flexible gig arrangements reduces participation in public assistance programs like Social Security Disability Insurance, Supplemental Security Income, and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. To some extent, this new private self-insurance crowds-out traditional social insurance. However, the effect of gig opportunity access on program participation is attenuated in weak local labor markets, meaning gig work does not replace social programs when insuring against aggregate, macroeconomic risks.