Policy Brief 22-9: The online gig economy’s impact is not as big as many thought

the evidence Study of OPE work in South Korea is just beginning, but the evidence suggests some summarized by Chang (2021) suggests some similarities between South Korea similarities and the United States in terms of the scale of activity, the degree of concentration in transportation services, and the flexibility of OPE work. [...] Given South Korea’s between South large investment in information technology (IT), broadband, and 5G, the degree Korea and the to which it has become the world’s most wired country, the concentration of its United States population and GDP in well-connected urban centers, the high level of education in terms of the of its workforce, and the constrained opportunities for the large fraction of curre. [...] PB 22-9 | JULY 2022 5  UBER AS AN ANOMALY The small scale of OPE work in the United States and the glacial pace of change of broader measures of alternative work arrangements seem to sit in uneasy contrast with the transformational impact of Uber and its domestic and foreign imitators on the urban transportation landscape. [...] They depend on the platform to connect them to customers, and it is the platform, not the individual driver, that typically sets the user fees, the terms of service, and the driver’s compensation. [...] Given South Korea’s significant investment in information technology (IT), broadband, and 5G; the degree to which it has become the world’s most wired country; the concentration of its population and GDP in a small number of well- connected urban centers; the high level of education of its workforce; and the constrained set of work opportunities for the large share of workers who do not hold secur.