Aspen is a place for leaders to lift their sights above the possessions which possess them. To confront their own nature as human beings, to regain control over their own humanity by becoming more self-aware, more self-correcting, and hence more self-fulfilling.
Walter P. Paepcke, Aspen Institute Co-Founder
Aspen Institute
Blog Posts, and Publications
Data on the Sharing & On-Demand Economy: What We Know and Don’t Know
Until 2015, we knew very little about the work and workers in the sharing/on-demand economy. Indeed, the last official government survey of the broader contingent workforce was conducted in 20051 — long before most of these new platforms or apps even existed. However, in the last year, our understanding has advanced dramatically, thanks to the release of a few key pieces of research, including: the JPMorgan Chase Institute study, “Paychecks, Paydays and the Online Platform Economy;” Lawrence Katz and Alan Krueger’s “The Rise and Nature of Alternative Work Arrangements in the United States, 1995-2015;” work by Intuit and Emergent Research, “Dispatches from the New Economy: The On-Demand Economy Workforce;” and others. However, while these and other studies have revealed a great deal about the work and workers in the sharing/on-demand economy, there is still much we need to understand. This paper aims to lay out what we know about the sharing/on-demand economy and define questions for additional research. This paper is meant to be a resource for public and private research organizations, foundations, government agencies, and other parties interested in promoting a more thorough understanding of the sharing/on-demand economy workforce, including its relationship to the broader contingent workforce.
