The Rise and Implications of the Gig Economy: Growth and Discrimination

Abstract

Over the past decade, there has been rapid growth of the 1099 workforce and a trend towards the crowdsourcing and outsourcing of labor. Recently, a segment of the 1099 economy that has risen to prominence is the gig economy, also known as the sharing economy or platform economy. Due to its novelty, not much is known about the growth or potentially negative implications of this new type of labor. Our work aims to answer two questions: What factors are driving the growth of the gig economy? What sort of racial and gender discrimination do workers face in the gig economy? First, using data from the Census Bureau, we estimate a series of multiple linear regressions, and identify that factors such as technical sophistication, peer-to-peer trust, healthcare coverage, and unemployment help explain the rise of the gig economy. Second, utilizing data from on-demand company TaskRabbit, we find evidence of bias in worker hiring and worker evaluation on the basis of race and gender. We hope that the findings of this paper will contribute to a greater understanding of the gig economy and will help inform public policy decisions in the rapidly evolving labor market.