IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-03369291.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Who bears the burden of a pandemic? COVID-19 and the transfer of risk to digital platform workers

Author

Listed:
  • Paola Tubaro

    (TAU - TAckling the Underspecified - Inria Saclay - Ile de France - Inria - Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique - LISN - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire des Sciences du Numérique - Inria - Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique - CentraleSupélec - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, LISN - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire des Sciences du Numérique - Inria - Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique - CentraleSupélec - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Antonio A Casilli

    (I3 SES - Institut interdisciplinaire de l’innovation de Telecom Paris - Télécom ParisTech - I3 - Institut interdisciplinaire de l’innovation - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, SES - Département Sciences Economiques et Sociales - Télécom ParisTech, SID - Sociologie Information-Communication Design - I3 SES - Institut interdisciplinaire de l’innovation de Telecom Paris - Télécom ParisTech - I3 - Institut interdisciplinaire de l’innovation - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris, IIAC - Institut interdisciplinaire d'anthropologie du contemporain - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the recessionary effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on digital platform workers. The crisis has been described as a great work-from-home experiment, with platform ecosystems positing as its most advanced form. Our analysis differentiates the direct (health) and indirect (economic) risks incurred by workers, to critically assess the portrayal of platforms as buffers against crisis-induced layoffs. We submit that platform-mediated labor may eventually increase precarity, without necessarily reducing health risks for workers. Our argument is based on a comparison of the three main categories of platform work – "on-demand labor" (gigs such as delivery and transportation), "online labor" (tasks performed remotely, such as data annotation) and "social networking labor" (content generation and moderation). We discuss the strategies that platforms deploy to transfer risk from clients onto workers, thus deepening existing power imbalances between them. These results question the problematic equivalence between work-from-home and platform labor. Instead of attaining the advantages of the former in terms of direct and indirect risk mitigation, an increasing number of platformized jobs drift toward high economic and insuppressible health risks.

Suggested Citation

  • Paola Tubaro & Antonio A Casilli, 2022. "Who bears the burden of a pandemic? COVID-19 and the transfer of risk to digital platform workers," Post-Print hal-03369291, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03369291
    DOI: 10.1177/00027642211066027
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-03369291
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal.science/hal-03369291/document
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00027642211066027?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paola Tubaro & Antonio A. Casilli & Marion Coville, 2020. "The trainer, the verifier, the imitator: Three ways in which human platform workers support artificial intelligence," Post-Print hal-02554196, HAL.
    2. Dingel, Jonathan I. & Neiman, Brent, 2020. "How many jobs can be done at home?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    3. Paola Tubaro & Antonio A. Casilli, 2019. "Micro-work, artificial intelligence and the automotive industry," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 46(3), pages 333-345, September.
    4. Arindrajit Dube & Jeff Jacobs & Suresh Naidu & Siddharth Suri, 2020. "Monopsony in Online Labor Markets," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 2(1), pages 33-46, March.
    5. Fabian Stephany & Michael Dunn & Steven Sawyer & Vili Lehdonvirta, 2020. "Distancing Bonus Or Downscaling Loss? The Changing Livelihood of Us Online Workers in Times of COVID‐19," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 111(3), pages 561-573, July.
    6. Stephany, Fabian & Dunn, Michael & Sawyer, Steven & Lehdonvirta, Vili, 2020. "Distancing Bonus or Downscaling Loss? The Changing Livelihood of US Online Workers in Times of COVID-19," SocArXiv vmg34, Center for Open Science.
    7. Katarina Giritli Nygren & Anna Olofsson, 2020. "Managing the Covid-19 pandemic through individual responsibility: the consequences of a world risk society and enhanced ethopolitics," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(7-8), pages 1031-1035, August.
    8. Borchert, Kathrin & Hirth, Matthias & Kummer, Michael E. & Laitenberger, Ulrich & Slivko, Olga & Viete, Steffen, 2018. "Unemployment and online labor," ZEW Discussion Papers 18-023, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mueller-Langer, Frank & Gómez-Herrera, Estrella, 2022. "Mobility restrictions and the substitution between on-site and remote work: Empirical evidence from a European online labour market," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    2. Chiara Belletti & Daniel Erdsiek & Ulrich Laitenberger & Paola Tubaro, 2021. "Crowdworking in France and Germany," Working Papers hal-03468022, HAL.
    3. Sugata Marjit & Gouranga Gopal Das, 2022. "Immunity-Driven Comparative Advantage and Its Palliative Effect on Social Health and Inequality - A Theoretical Perspective," CESifo Working Paper Series 9569, CESifo.
    4. Tan, Zhi Ming & Aggarwal, Nikita & Cowls, Josh & Morley, Jessica & Taddeo, Mariarosaria & Floridi, Luciano, 2021. "The ethical debate about the gig economy: A review and critical analysis," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    5. Fabian Stephany & Otto Kassi & Uma Rani & Vili Lehdonvirta, 2021. "Online Labour Index 2020: New ways to measure the world's remote freelancing market," Papers 2105.09148, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2021.
    6. Cantarella, Michele & Strozzi, Chiara, 2019. "Workers in the Crowd: The Labour Market Impact of the Online Platform Economy," IZA Discussion Papers 12327, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Tubaro, Paola & Coville, Marion & Le Ludec, Clément & Casilli, Antonio A., 2022. "Hidden inequalities: The gendered labour of women on micro-tasking platforms," Internet Policy Review: Journal on Internet Regulation, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), Berlin, vol. 11(1), pages 1-26.
    8. Stephany, Fabian, 2021. "When Does it Pay Off to Learn a New Skill? Revealing the Complementary Benefit of Cross-Skilling," SocArXiv sv9de, Center for Open Science.
    9. Ciotti, Fabrizio & Hornuf, Lars & Stenzhorn, Eliza, 2021. "Lock-In Effects in Online Labor Markets," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2021014, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    10. Malo, Miguel, 2020. "Una reflexión sobre las primeras respuestas de política al impacto del Covid-19 sobre el empleo [A reflection on the first mitigating policies of the impact of Covid-19 on employment]," MPRA Paper 104390, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Kässi, Otto & Lehdonvirta, Vili & Stephany, Fabian, 2021. "How Many Online Workers are there in the World? A Data-Driven Assessment," SocArXiv 78nge, Center for Open Science.
    12. Martindale, Nicholas & Lehdonvirta, Vili, 2021. "Can labour market digitalization increase social mobility? Evidence from a European survey of online platform workers," SocArXiv 54aqh, Center for Open Science.
    13. Marjit, Sugata & Das, Gouranga G., 2023. "Immunity-driven Comparative Advantage and its Palliative Effect on Social Health and Inequality: A Theoretical Perspective," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1252, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    14. Lars Hornuf & Daniel Vrankar, 2022. "Hourly Wages in Crowdworking: A Meta-Analysis," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 64(5), pages 553-573, October.
    15. Sam Jones & Ivan Manhique, 2021. "Informal freelancers in the time of COVID-19: Insights from a digital matching platform in Mozambique," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-95, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    16. Uma Rani & Rishabh Kumar Dhir, 2020. "Platform Work and the COVID-19 Pandemic," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 63(1), pages 163-171, October.
    17. Daniel Erdsiek, 2021. "Unternehmen setzen verstärkt auf Crowdworking [Companies increasingly rely on crowdworking]," Wirtschaftsdienst, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 101(11), pages 912-914, November.
    18. Pouliakas, Konstantinos & Branka, Jiri, 2020. "EU Jobs at Highest Risk of COVID-19 Social Distancing: Will the Pandemic Exacerbate Labour Market Divide?," IZA Discussion Papers 13281, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Olivier Boiral & Marie-Christine Brotherton & Léo Rivaud & Laurence Guillaumie, 2021. "Organizations’ Management of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review of Business Articles," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-20, April.
    20. Fabian Stephany, 2020. "When Does it Pay Off to Learn a New Skill? Revealing the Complementary Benefit of Cross-Skilling," Papers 2010.11841, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2021.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Platforms; digital labor; risk; work-from-home; COVID-19;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:hal:journl:hal-03369291. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.