Seminar «The Institutional Environment and Gig-Platform Transaction Cost Solutions»
Doctor of Economics, Prof. Svetlana Golovanova (HSE Nizhny Novgorod) made an online presentation on the topic: «The Institutional Environment and Gig-Platform Transaction Cost Solutions» at the International Laboratory of Digital Transformation in Public Administration. Co-authors of the presented study: Associate Professor of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Eduardo Pontual Ribeiro, Head of the International Laboratory of Digital Transformation in Public Administration Evgeny Styrin, Research Assistant at the International Laboratory of Digital Transformation in Public Administration Ivan Makarov.
An increasing number of labor market participants are making deals through employment platforms. This choice should reflect a reduction in transaction costs for platform users compared to the costs they face when interacting not through the platform (work under a temporal contract concluded in the market, or permanent employment).
The study uses a unique database collected by International Laboratory of Digital Transformation in Public Administration staff at the Higher School of Economics based on a survey of more than 3 thousand users of employment platforms in more than 50 countries around the world to test the impact of the institutional environment in one of its aspects — the rigor of labor market regulation — on the ability of platforms to reduce transaction costs of users. The authors are open to cooperation – the collected database can be used for other research works.
Prof. Svetlana Golovanova reported that, according to the results obtained, platforms reduce the transaction costs of their users to the greatest extent in the case of the most stringent or weakest regulation of the labor market (U-shaped effect). The cross–country effect is also revealed - the impact of the rigidity of labor market regulation in the country where the platform headquarters are located on its ability to reduce transaction costs in the country of users.
Thus, the results confirm that in the era of digitalization, when enterprises based on IT technologies easily cross borders, the state, as a regulator of economic processes, still has a decisive influence on the business environment and transaction costs of economic agents.