Can You Gig It? An Empirical Examination of the Gig Economy and Entrepreneurial Activity
Open accessAbstract
We examine how the entry of gig-economy platforms influences local entrepreneurial activity. On the one hand, such platforms may reduce entrepreneurial activity by offering stable employment for the unemployed and underemployed. On the other hand, such platforms may enable entrepreneurial activity by offering work flexibility that allows the entrepreneur to redeploy resources strategically in order to pursue the nascent venture. To resolve this tension, we examine the entry of the ridesharing platform Uber X into local areas. We use two measures of entrepreneurial activity: crowdfunding campaign launches at Kickstarter, the world’s largest reward-based crowdfunding platform, and levels of self-employment from the Current Population Survey. Results indicate a negative and significant relationship between platform entry and both measures of entrepreneurial activity. Importantly, the effect manifests primarily amongst unsuccessful Kickstarter campaigns and unincorporated entrepreneurial ventures, suggesting that gig-economy platforms predominantly reduce lower quality entrepreneurial activity, seemingly by offering viable employment for the unemployed and underemployed. These relationships are corroborated with a first-hand survey conducted with gig-economy service providers. This paper was accepted by Anandhi Bharadwaj, information systems.
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Burtch et al. (2018) find a negative relationship between Uber entry and local entrepreneurial activity, implying that online gig platforms provide viable work for unemployed or underemployed people.
“Connecting the proliferation of online gig platforms to job opportunities, Burtch et al. (2018) identify a negative relationship between Uber entry and local entrepreneurial activity, implying that online gig platforms offer viable work opportunities for the unemployed or underemployed.”
From Skill-Biased Technical Change, Again? Online Gig Platforms and Local Employment (2025) · cites this paper as Burtch et al. 2018
The IPUMS dataset has been widely used in labor economics and IS literature.
“This dataset has widely been used in labor economics (e.g., Kerr and Lincoln 2010) and IS literature (e.g., Burtch et al. 2018).”
From Skill-Biased Technical Change, Again? Online Gig Platforms and Local Employment (2025) · cites this paper as Burtch et al. 2018
We employed a staggered Difference-in-Differences framework with two-way fixed effects, following several IS studies.
“We employed a staggered Difference-in-Differences (DiD) framework with two-way fixed effects to estimate the impact of TaskRabbit entry on local incumbent housekeeping employment (H1), following several IS studies on the impact of online gig platforms (e.g., Burtch et al. 2018, Brynjolfsson et al. 2019).”
From Skill-Biased Technical Change, Again? Online Gig Platforms and Local Employment (2025) · cites this paper as Burtch et al. 2018
Online gig platforms have substantially reshaped U.S. labor markets by lowering search costs and giving workers flexibility and autonomy.
“Online gig platforms have substantially reshaped the U.S. labor markets by reducing search costs (Chen andHorton 2016, Goldfarb andTucker 2019) and granting workers flexibility and autonomy (e.g., Burtch et al. 2018).”
From Skill-Biased Technical Change, Again? Online Gig Platforms and Local Employment (2025) · cites this paper as Burtch et al. 2018
Cites
How Much Should We Trust Differences-in-Differences Estimates?
Bertrand, M., Duflo, E., & Mullainathan, S. (2004) · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · doi:10.1162/003355304772839588 · Cited by 10,641 · see citing works
Digital Discrimination: The Case of Airbnb.com
Edelman, B. G., & Luca, M. (2014) · doi:10.2139/ssrn.2377353 · Cited by 471 · see citing works
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Introduction—Platforms and Infrastructures in the Digital Age
Constantinides, P., Henfridsson, O., & Parker, G. G. (2018) · Information Systems Research · doi:10.1287/isre.2018.0794 · Cited by 943 · see citing works
Job quality, fair work and gig work: the lived experience of gig workers
Myhill, K., Richards, J., & Sang, K. (2021) · The International Journal of Human Resource Management · doi:10.1080/09585192.2020.1867612 · Cited by 155 · see citing works
Webster, N. A., & Zhang, Q. (2020) · NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research · doi:10.1080/08038740.2020.1714725 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
Hänninen, M., & Smedlund, A. (2021) · Journal of Management Studies · doi:10.1111/joms.12701 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
Skill-Biased Technical Change, Again? Online Gig Platforms and Local Employment
Guo, X., Cheng, Z. (., & Pavlou, P. A. (2025) · Information Systems Research · doi:10.1287/isre.2022.0307 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
- Authors
- Burtch, G., Carnahan, S., & Greenwood, B. N.
- Affiliations
- University of Minnesota (US)
- University of Michigan (US)
- Corresponding author
- Greenwood, Brad N.
- Venue
- Management Science
- Published
- 2018-12
- Volume
- 64
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 5497-5520
- ISSN
- 0025-1909 (ISSN-L)
- 1526-5501
- OpenAlex
- W3123274456
- Cited by
- 785
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 67 · 2025: 90 · 2024: 77 · 2023: 90 · 2022: 76 · 2021: 75 · 2020: 49 · 2019: 37 · 2018: 127 · 2017: 90 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 3 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 243.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Locations
- Management Science (publishedVersion)
- SSRN Electronic Journal (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Economy and Work Transformation
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Management Information Systems › FinTech, Crowdfunding, Digital Finance
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Sharing Economy and Platforms
- Keywords
- gig economy, entrepreneurial activity, ride-sharing platforms, Uber, platform entry, crowdfunding, Kickstarter, self-employment, work flexibility
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