IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/zewdip/21101.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Transitions from offline to online labor markets: The relationship between freelancers' prior offline and online work experience

Author

Listed:
  • Seifried, Mareike

Abstract

An emerging stream of research from various disciplines studies online labor market (OLM) platforms as an alternative way of accomplishing work compared to traditional (offline) labor markets. Although prior work has increased our understanding of how OLM platforms function, we so far know very little about the relationship between what workers have done before entering the platform and the skill content of their online jobs. However, the question of why workers do the jobs they do in an online context and what drives their decision is fundamental to understanding how these markets function and are used by workers. Using data on 4,771 freelancers working on Upwork.com, the world's leading freelancing website, we compare the skill content of their online jobs with their last reported offline prior to platform entry. Based on prior work on occupational mobility (Gathmann & Schönberg, 2010) and human capital investments (Becker, 1962), we hypothesize and find that workers with more valuable skillsets adjust their skill portfolios less while working online, i.e. the distance between their offline and online skill portfolio is lower. We further show that being female, coming from an advanced economy and reporting having current offline employment moderates the relationship between skill value and skill distance.

Suggested Citation

  • Seifried, Mareike, 2021. "Transitions from offline to online labor markets: The relationship between freelancers' prior offline and online work experience," ZEW Discussion Papers 21-101, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:zewdip:21101
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/248855/1/1785233475.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Azar, José & Alekseeva, Liudmila & Gine, Mireia & Samila, Sampsa & Taska, Bledi, 2020. "The Demand for AI Skills in the Labor Market," CEPR Discussion Papers 14320, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. McCall, Brian P, 1990. "Occupational Matching: A Test of Sorts," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(1), pages 45-69, February.
    3. Gary S. Becker, 1962. "Investment in Human Capital: A Theoretical Analysis," NBER Chapters, in: Investment in Human Beings, pages 9-49, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. David J. Deming & Kadeem L. Noray, 2018. "STEM Careers and the Changing Skill Requirements of Work," NBER Working Papers 25065, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Kässi, Otto & Lehdonvirta, Vili, 2018. "Online labour index: Measuring the online gig economy for policy and research," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 241-248.
    6. Christopher T. Stanton & Catherine Thomas, 2016. "Landing the First Job: The Value of Intermediaries in Online Hiring," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 83(2), pages 810-854.
    7. Chris Robinson, 2018. "Occupational Mobility, Occupation Distance, and Specific Human Capital," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 53(2), pages 513-551.
    8. David H. Autor & Frank Levy & Richard J. Murnane, 2003. "The skill content of recent technological change: an empirical exploration," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Nov.
    9. Matthew Bidwell & Forrest Briscoe, 2010. "The Dynamics of Interorganizational Careers," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(5), pages 1034-1053, October.
    10. Ajay Agrawal & John Horton & Nicola Lacetera & Elizabeth Lyons, 2015. "Digitization and the Contract Labor Market: A Research Agenda," NBER Chapters, in: Economic Analysis of the Digital Economy, pages 219-250, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Chiswick, Barry R. & Taengnoi, Sarinda, 2007. "Occupational Choice of High Skilled Immigrants in the United States," IZA Discussion Papers 2969, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. David H. Autor & Michael J. Handel, 2013. "Putting Tasks to the Test: Human Capital, Job Tasks, and Wages," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 31(S1), pages 59-96.
    13. David J. Deming & Noam Yuchtman & Amira Abulafi & Claudia Goldin & Lawrence F. Katz, 2016. "The Value of Postsecondary Credentials in the Labor Market: An Experimental Study," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(3), pages 778-806, March.
    14. Erik Brynjolfsson & Tom Mitchell & Daniel Rock, 2018. "What Can Machines Learn, and What Does It Mean for Occupations and the Economy?," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 108, pages 43-47, May.
    15. Azmat, Ghazala & Petrongolo, Barbara, 2014. "Gender and the labor market: What have we learned from field and lab experiments?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 32-40.
    16. Christina Gathmann & Uta Schönberg, 2010. "How General Is Human Capital? A Task-Based Approach," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(1), pages 1-49, January.
    17. Rosen, Sherwin, 1983. "Specialization and Human Capital," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 43-49, January.
    18. Marios Kokkodis & Panagiotis G. Ipeirotis, 2016. "Reputation Transferability in Online Labor Markets," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(6), pages 1687-1706, June.
    19. Alessandra Guariglia & Byung-Yeon Kim, 2004. "Earnings uncertainty, precautionary saving, and moonlighting in Russia," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 17(2), pages 289-310, June.
    20. Georgios A. Panos & Konstantinos Pouliakas & Alexandros Zangelidis, 2014. "Multiple Job Holding, Skill Diversification, and Mobility," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 223-272, April.
    21. Azmat, Ghazala & Petrongolo, Barbara, 2014. "Gender and the labor market: What have we learned from field and lab experiments?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 32-40.
    22. Eggenberger, Christian & Rinawi, Miriam & Backes-Gellner, Uschi, 2018. "Occupational specificity: A new measurement based on training curricula and its effect on labor market outcomes," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 97-107.
    23. Leung, Ming D, 2017. "Learning to hire? Hiring as a dynamic experiential learning process in an online market for contract labor," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt5rj3f9xg, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    24. Autor, David & Dorn, David, 2009. "Inequality and Specialization: The Growth of Low-Skill Service Jobs in the United States," IZA Discussion Papers 4290, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    25. Acemoglu, Daron & Autor, David, 2011. "Skills, Tasks and Technologies: Implications for Employment and Earnings," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 12, pages 1043-1171, Elsevier.
    26. Agrawal, Ajay & Lacetera, Nicola & Lyons, Elizabeth, 2016. "Does standardized information in online markets disproportionately benefit job applicants from less developed countries?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 1-12.
    27. Jason Furman & Robert Seamans, 2019. "AI and the Economy," Innovation Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 19(1), pages 161-191.
    28. Daniel L. Chen & John J. Horton, 2016. "Research Note—Are Online Labor Markets Spot Markets for Tasks? A Field Experiment on the Behavioral Response to Wage Cuts," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 27(2), pages 403-423, June.
    29. Yili Hong & Paul A. Pavlou, 2017. "On Buyer Selection of Service Providers in Online Outsourcing Platforms for IT Services," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 28(3), pages 547-562, September.
    30. Chen, Daniel L. & Horton, John J., 2016. "Are Online Labor Markets Spot Markets for Tasks?: A Field Experiment on the Behavioral Response to Wage Cuts," TSE Working Papers 16-675, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    31. Giovanni Peri & Chad Sparber, 2011. "Highly Educated Immigrants and Native Occupational Choice," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 385-411, July.
    32. Borghans, Lex & Green, Francis & Mayhew, Ken, 2001. "Skills Measurement and Economic Analysis: An Introduction," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 53(3), pages 375-384, July.
    33. Gueorgui Kambourov & Iourii Manovskii, 2008. "Rising Occupational And Industry Mobility In The United States: 1968-97," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 49(1), pages 41-79, February.
    34. Maxim Poletaev & Chris Robinson, 2008. "Human Capital Specificity: Evidence from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles and Displaced Worker Surveys, 1984-2000," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(3), pages 387-420, July.
    35. Irfan Kanat & Yili Hong & T. S. Raghu, 2018. "Surviving in Global Online Labor Markets for IT Services: A Geo-Economic Analysis," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(4), pages 893-909, December.
    36. 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.
    37. David H. Autor, 2001. "Wiring the Labor Market," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(1), pages 25-40, Winter.
    38. Theodore Papageorgiou, 2014. "Learning Your Comparative Advantages," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 81(3), pages 1263-1295.
    39. Jamin D. Speer, 2017. "Pre-Market Skills, Occupational Choice, and Career Progression," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 52(1), pages 187-246.
    40. Jyldyz Djumalieva1 & Cath Sleeman, 2018. "An Open and Data-driven Taxonomy of Skills Extracted from Online Job Adverts," Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE) Discussion Papers ESCoE DP-2018-13, Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE).
    41. Prasanna Tambe & Xuan Ye & Peter Cappelli, 2020. "Paying to Program? Engineering Brand and High-Tech Wages," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(7), pages 3010-3028, July.
    42. Amanda Pallais, 2014. "Inefficient Hiring in Entry-Level Labor Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(11), pages 3565-3599, November.
    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. Claussen, Jörg & Kretschmer, Tobias & Khashabi, Pooyan & Seifried, Mareike, 2020. "Two to tango? Psychological contract breach in online labor markets," ZEW Discussion Papers 20-078, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    2. Seifried, Mareike & Jurowetzki, Roman & Kretschmer, Tobias, 2020. "Career paths in online labor markets: Same, same but different?," ZEW Discussion Papers 20-090, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    3. Braesemann, Fabian & Stephany, Fabian & Teutloff, Ole & Kässi, Otto & Graham, Mark & Lehdonvirta, Vili, 2021. "The polarisation of remote work," SocArXiv q8a96, Center for Open Science.
    4. Ralph Stinebrickner & Todd Stinebrickner & Paul Sullivan, 2019. "Job Tasks, Time Allocation, and Wages," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 37(2), pages 399-433.
    5. Marios Kokkodis, 2023. "Adjusting Skillset Cohesion in Online Labor Markets: Reputation Gains and Opportunity Losses," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 34(3), pages 1245-1258, September.
    6. Fabian Braesemann & Fabian Stephany & Ole Teutloff & Otto Kassi & Mark Graham & Vili Lehdonvirta, 2021. "The global polarisation of remote work," Papers 2108.13356, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2022.
    7. Speer, Jamin D., 2016. "How bad is occupational coding error? A task-based approach," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 166-168.
    8. Panos Constantinides & Ola Henfridsson & Geoffrey G. Parker, 2018. "Introduction—Platforms and Infrastructures in the Digital Age," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(2), pages 381-400, June.
    9. Guido Matias Cortes, 2016. "Where Have the Middle-Wage Workers Gone? A Study of Polarization Using Panel Data," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(1), pages 63-105.
    10. Arellano-Bover, Jaime & Saltiel, Fernando, 2021. "Differences in On-the-Job Learning across Firms," IZA Discussion Papers 14473, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Ralph Stinebrickner & Todd Stinebrickner & Paul Sullivan, 2019. "Beauty, Job Tasks, and Wages: A New Conclusion about Employer Taste-Based Discrimination," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(4), pages 602-615, October.
    12. Elisabeth Bublitz, 2018. "Matching skills of individuals and firms along the career path," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 70(2), pages 509-537.
    13. Kracke, Nancy & Reichelt, Malte & Vicari, Basha, 2017. "Wage losses due to overqualification: The role of formal degrees and occupational skills," IAB-Discussion Paper 201710, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    14. Kazakova, E. & Sandomirskaia, M. & Suvorov, A. & Khazhgerieva, A. & Shavshin, R., 2023. "Platforms, online labor markets, and crowdsourcing. Part 1. Traditional online labor market," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 60(3), pages 120-148.
    15. Carl Sanders & Christopher Taber, 2012. "Life-Cycle Wage Growth and Heterogeneous Human Capital," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 4(1), pages 399-425, July.
    16. Fatih Guvenen & Burhan Kuruscu & Satoshi Tanaka & David Wiczer, 2020. "Multidimensional Skill Mismatch," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 210-244, January.
    17. Ljubica Nedelkoska & Frank Neffke, 2019. "Skill Mismatch and Skill Transferability: Review of Concepts and Measurements," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1921, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Jun 2019.
    18. 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).
    19. Duch-Brown, Néstor & Gomez-Herrera, Estrella & Mueller-Langer, Frank & Tolan, Songül, 2022. "Market power and artificial intelligence work on online labour markets," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(3).
    20. Georgios A. Panos & Konstantinos Pouliakas & Alexandros Zangelidis, 2014. "Multiple Job Holding, Skill Diversification, and Mobility," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 223-272, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Online labor markets; gig economy; labor mobility; occupational mobility; human capital; task-based approach; digital platforms; knowledge work;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers
    • J44 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Professional Labor Markets and Occupations

    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:zbw:zewdip:21101. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/zemande.html .

    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.