Digitization and the Contract Labor Market: A Research Agenda
Digitization and the Contract Labor Market: A Research Agenda
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DOI：
10.3386/w19525
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发表时间：
2013-10
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
A. Agrawal;J. Horton;N. Lacetera;Elizabeth Lyons
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
A. Agrawal;J. Horton;N. Lacetera;Elizabeth Lyons
在线合同劳动力使传统的本地劳动力市场全球化，其平台使大多数位于高收入国家的雇主能够更容易地将任务外包给主要位于低收入国家的承包商。这个市场正在迅速增长;我们提供了来自一个领先平台的描述性统计数据，该平台的工作时间从2011年到2012年增加了55%，2012年的工资总额刚刚超过3.6亿美元。我们概述了在这个市场环境中的三条调查路线，这是更广泛的数字化研究议程的核心：1）这个市场的数字化将如何影响经济活动的分布（工作的地理分布，收入分配，跨公司边界的工作分配）？2)在这些数字市场环境中，用户对市场设计特征（可见性分配、人力资本获取投资、机器辅助推荐）的反应所反映的信息摩擦的程度和性质是什么？3)这个市场的数字化将如何影响社会福利（提高匹配、生产的效率？）我们利用经济理论以及在线合同劳动力市场和其他相关环境的实证研究证据来激励和背景化这一研究议程。
Online contract labor globalizes traditionally local labor markets, with platforms that enable employers, most of whom are in high-income countries, to more easily outsource tasks to contractors, primarily located in low-income countries. This market is growing rapidly; we provide descriptive statistics from one of the leading platforms where the number of hours worked increased 55% from 2011 to 2012, with the 2012 total wage bill just over $360 million. We outline three lines of inquiry in this market setting that are central to the broader digitization research agenda: 1) How will the digitization of this market influence the distribution of economic activity (geographic distribution of work, income distribution, distribution of work across firm boundaries)?; 2) What is the magnitude and nature of information frictions in these digital market settings as reflected by user responses to market design features (allocation of visibility, investments in human capital acquisition, machine-aided recommendations)?; 3) How will the digitization of this market affect social welfare (increased efficiency in matching, production?)? We draw upon economic theory as well as evidence from empirical research on online contract labor markets and other related settings to motivate and contextualize this research agenda.