New Opportunities in the Platform Economy : On-Ramps to Formalization in the Global South

31 May 2019
ABOUT THIS Report

The JustJobs Network team has collaborated with the Future of Work in the Global South, to examine the platform economy workers in the global South. The findings and recommendations of this paper aim to improve policymakers’ access to data on platform economy work and, second, on using that information to design integrated systems of taxation and social protection and develop appropriate legal definitions of platform services and workers.

The Platform economy is expanding at a fast pace worldwide. Since 2016, the use of online labor has risen by about 31.6 percent worldwide[1].
The Global South presents unique challenges and opportunities, compared to the rest of the world, with a large share of the workforce relying on platforms as their primary income source.

The JustJobs Network team has collaborated with the Future of Work in the Global South, to examine the platform economy workers in the global South. The findings and recommendations of this paper aim to improve policymakers’ access to data on platform economy work and, second, on using that information to design integrated systems of taxation and social protection and develop appropriate legal definitions of platform services and workers. The approach calls for a collaborative effort between firms and the governments, with mutual information-sharing.

[1] How the OLI Worker Supplement Is Constructed | The ILabour Project,” July 11, 2017, https://ilabour.oii.ox- .ac.uk/measuring-the-supply-of-digital-labour-how-the-oli-worker-supplement-is-constructed/.
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