Measuring the ‘Gig’ Economy: Challenges and Options

Abstract

The increase in internet-based services has raised policy interest in gig work, which is work done outside formal employer-employee relationships. Given the dearth of information about the nature and magnitude of gig work and the extent of its growth in New Zealand, it is unclear whether current regulatory institutions adequately regulate it. There is also concern among policymakers about the effect of gig work on the financial stability of gig workers. In this paper we provide a New Zealand-specific typology for identifying gig work, and discuss conceptual and practical issues related to measuring it. We describe how existing New Zealand data can be used to learn more about gig work and make suggestions for improving its measurement in the future. JEL codesJ21, J40, J46, J81, J83, J88

The Digital Economy and Digital Business

“…Furthermore, extant measures typically do not include new paradigms and business models enabled by digital technologies such as the so-called 'sharing economy' and 'gig economy'. Measuring these activities is more difficult as traditional sources of national statistics may not probe sufficiently to uncover such work arrangements, workers may not consider these activities as their primary employment or even a job, or workers may not wish to report such activities for tax avoidance reasons (Riggs et al, 2019).…”

“…Similarly, statistics based on the digital platforms that enable these activities may not be comprehensive, representative, or consistent over time (Riggs et al, 2019). Most international frameworks do not include evaluations of laws and regulations related digital business, one would assume due to the difficulty in reducing these variables to a numeric indicator.…”