Labour market effects of crowdwork in the US and EU: an empirical investigation

Is it possible to estimate the real impact of micro-task crowdwork on wages and working conditions of platform workers? Do workers involved in micro-task outsourcing differ in their characteristics from traditional salaried workers of similar ability? Are micro-task crowdworkers similar or different in the United States and in Europe? In this paper, we address these questions by comparing wages and working conditions across onlineplatform workers and traditional workers in a quasi-experimental approach which exploits caregiving as an instrument for participation in crowdwork. We find evidence that, when controlling for workers’ observed and unobserved ability, traditional workers retain a significant premium in their earnings with respect to platform workers, though this effect is not as large as descriptive statistics may hint. Moreover, labour force in crowdworking arrangements appears to suffer from high levels of under-utilisation, relegating crowdworkers into a new category of idle workers whose human capital is neither fully utilised nor adequately compensated.