ABSTRACT

The sharing economy has fundamentally changed the way many individuals work. In this paper, we study the impact of the entry of a major ridesharing platform into U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), on the supply and demand sides of the labor market. Leveraging the difference-in-differences (DID) research design and a data set combining multiple U.S. Census archival sources, we exploit the variation in labor market metrics before and after Uber’s entry into the MSAs. Our empirical findings reveal that the introduction of the ridesharing platform has an empowering effect on workers (the supply side of the labor market) and a competition effect on traditional jobs (the demand side of the labor market). Specifically, Uber’s entry into the MSAs increases labor force participation, decreases the unemployment rate of residents living below the poverty level, and improves the employment and financial status of low-income workers. In addition, Uber’s entry reduces the employment number and increases wages of conventional low-skill and/or low-wage jobs. This paper provides empirical evidence of the impact of a digital sharing economy platform on the labor market and suggests that policymakers and platform operators should account for this broader impact when they devise policies and make strategic decisions.

摘要

共享经济从根本上改变了许多人的工作方式。在本文中，我们研究了主要乘车共享平台进入美国大都会统计区（MSA）对劳动力市场供需双方的影响。利用差异分析（DID）研究设计和结合多个美国人口普查档案资源的数据集，我们利用Uber进入MSA之前和之后劳动力市场指标的变化。我们的经验发现表明，乘车共享平台的引入对工人（劳动力市场的供应方）产生了赋权效应，对传统工作（劳动力市场的需求方）产生了竞争效应。特别是，优步加入MSA可以增加劳动力参与，降低了生活在贫困线以下的居民的失业率，并改善了低收入工人的就业和财务状况。此外，Uber的加入减少了就业人数，并增加了传统的低技能和/或低薪工作的工资。本文提供了数字共享经济平台对劳动力市场的影响的经验证据，并建议政策制定者和平台运营商在制定政策和制定战略决策时应考虑这一广泛影响。