The gig economy and workers’ preferences for steady jobs

an article published in CentrePiece 24 (3) Autumn 2019


Is the rise of gig work, freelancing, zero hours contracts and self-employment a result of people wanting such work or because they have no other choice? Nikhil Datta finds that while workers in the gig economy may like flexibility, they would prefer to have a steady job. Indeed, they would agree to earn less to improve their employment security.

Full article (PDF 4pp)
It’s worth the time if only to see the graphs showing clearly the difference in hourly wages between those in zero-hours contracts and those in more secure employment.

JEL Classification: J22, J24, J32, J81

Labels:
atypical work, self-employment, willingness-to-pay, experiment, labour_supply_preferences,

This article summarises ‘Willing to Pay for Security: A Discrete Choice Experiment to Analyse Labour Supply Preferences’ by Nikhil Datta, CEP Discussion Paper No. 1632

Nikhil Datta is a research assistant in CEP’s trade and labour markets programmes.

Further reading

Nikhil Datta, Giulia Giupponi and Stephen Machin (2019)
‘Zero Hours Contracts and Labour Market Policy, Economic Policy
(https://academic.oup.com/economicpolicy/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/epolic/eiz008/5524663)

Lawrence Katz and Alan Krueger (2016)
‘The Rise and Nature of Alternative Work Arrangements in the United States,
1995-2015’, National Bureau of Economic
Research (NBER) Working Paper No. 22667.

Lawrence Katz and Alan Krueger (2017)
‘The Role of Unemployment in the Rise in Alternative Work Arrangements’,
American Economic Review 107: 388-92.

Lawrence Katz and Alan Krueger (2019)
‘Understanding Trends in Alternative Work Arrangements in the United States’,
NBER Working Paper No. 25425.

Alexandre Mas and Amanda Pallais (2017)
‘Valuing Alternative Work Arrangements’,
American Economic Review 107: 3722-59.

Matthew Taylor, Greg Marsh, Diane Nicol and Paul Broadbent (2017)
Good Work: The Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices,
UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.

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