零工经济对创业的影响——以外卖平台的兴起为例

Gig Economy and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from the Entry of Food Delivery Platforms

随着数字技术的发展,平台经济迅速崛起,大大拓宽了"零工经济"的应用场景,催生了一大批新就业形态,为劳动力市场带来了深刻的变革。零工经济既可能通过提供收入安全网、对冲风险而促进创业,又可能因为提供替代的收入机会从而降低劳动者的创业动机。本文利用外卖平台进入我国各城市的时间差异,采用渐进倍差法,发现外卖平台的进入总体上会减少大约4.7%的企业注册数量。企业和行业层面的异质性分析显示,受到外卖平台负面冲击的主要是低注册资本、生存时间较短的企业,并集中在低资金需求、低技术水平的行业,说明平台所挤出的主要是低质量、生存型的创业活动。进一步的研究发现,外卖平台的兴起带动了金融、信息、科研和人力资源等行业的创业,并且促进了市场的细分化与个体化,这些发现与零工经济下工作灵活化和多元化的变动趋势相一致。

The development of digital technology and the rise of platforms have greatly expanded the scope of gig economy and created many new jobs, thus bringing fundamental changes to the labor market. On the one hand, gig worker platforms could encourage entrepreneurship by providing safety networks and hedging risks associated with entrepreneurship. On the other hand, alternative job opportunities provided by platforms could crowd out incentive to participate in entrepreneurial activities. This paper uses a staggered DID approach to examine the impact of entry of food delivery platforms on city-level new firm registration. The overall effect is-4.7%. Firm-level and industry-level heterogeneity analyses show that the negative impact mainly exists in low-registration-capital, short-lived firms, and concentrates in low-capital-requirement, low-skill industries. These findings suggest that platforms mainly crowd out low-quality or necessity entrepreneurship. We provide further evidence that platforms have a positive impact on entrepreneurship in industries including finance, information technology, R&D, and human resource management, which also induce the division of labor and the fragmentation and individualization of market. These findings are consistent with the trend of work arrangement flexibility under the gig economy.