Evangelos Mourelatos (p), Jaakko Simonen, Simo Hosio

Camilla Lenzi

In recent years, there has been a growing trend of individuals engaging in online labour markets in addition to their primary occupations. However, with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent shift towards remote work, there has been growing interest in how this trend towards online labour markets has been affected. Specifically, many have questioned how remote work has impacted individuals' behaviour in these markets and whether it has created new opportunities or challenges. To provide insight into the impact of remote work on the behaviour of individuals in online labour markets, we utilized a unique dataset obtained from a prominent online labour marketplace. This database contained several measures of worker productivity, which we analysed in conjunction with survey data collected from online workers regarding their experiences with conventional market changes, such as the shift towards remote work. By combining these two sources of data, we were able to investigate the ways in which the pandemic-induced shift towards remote work has affected the productivity and behaviour of online workers. We find, first, that the shift towards remote work during the pandemic has led to changes in the patterns of productivity in online labour markets. The transition towards remote work from home (WFH), decreased online productivity by 18%. Second, our findings suggest that the decrease in work quality and effort among workers transitioning to WFH is primarily due to a “sloppy” work approach. Specifically, while the quantity of online work output may increase for such workers, their overall work quality and level of effort tend to decline when compared to those who continue to work in traditional firm environments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Third, heterogeneous effects reveal that workers with higher levels of neuroticism tend to exhibit better adaptability to the WFH setup. Our analysis revealed several important findings with implications for both workers and policymakers in the gig economy.

Torben Dall Schmidt (p)

Evangelos Mourelatos

Technological change is not new in societies. A unique combination of crisis events in the form of a combined COVID-19 pandemic and an energy crisis though emphasizes the importance of considering the use of new technologies in firms and the use of digitalization in their operations. The adaptation of technologies would amongst others depend on acceptance and adoption as reviewed in Taherdoost (2018). Firm internal factors are important in using digitalization technologies. In addition the firm size and local milieus matters for abilities of firms to adopt technologies, as for instance pointed out in Kelley and Helper (1999). This is also stressed by broad theories such as regional innovation systems, urbanization driven by creative classes and knowledge spillovers in agglomeration economics.

We consider the intersection between firm size, acceptance and local milieus of firm as measured by rural and urban types of geographies. In doing this, we use the new SOEP-LEE2 dataset (Matiaske et al., 2022) to investigate these intersections. Our starting point is to determine if the use of digitalization technologies varies by firm size, while controlling for human capital inputs as measured by the composition of workers by skill groups. In this, we also address if different skill groups are differently important in using these technologies for different firm sizes. While doing this, we also investigate if these effects are markedly different for entrepreneurs (self-employed). Our next intersection addresses technology acceptance, as we investigate if a critical attitude internally in firms among workers matters differently for larger and smaller firms. On the one hand, larger firms may have more channels of cooperation through e.g. work and staff councils smoothing the process, while smaller firms have a stronger entrepreneurial spirit that may also foster acceptance. While firm internal factors may be important, we finally consider the intersection with local milieus. The use of technologies by firms may generally vary by local milieus from knowledge spillovers in regional innovation systems or a stronger network among creative individuals. This may also moderate the effects of acceptance of technologies in firms.

Roberta Capello, Camilla Lenzi (p), Elisa Panzera

Torben Dall Schmidt

The upsurge in wage inequalities is a common prediction in the literature analysing the labour market outcomes of the diffusion of ICTs and automation technologies. This issue, however, needs further investigation in the case of digital technologies. Their adoption generates a sprawling range of new business models, mostly based on digital platforms, selling services, products or contents on online markets, that lead to what in this work is labelled digital service economy. The new digitally enabled business models might create job opportunities for some occupations and destroy others, generating potential consequences for intraregional wage inequalities. The paper conceptually and empirically addresses such an issue through an analysis of 164 European regions in the period 2009-2016. The paper documents that only regions characterised by the most pervasive models of digital service economy experience a rise of intraregional wage inequalities.