Platform Behavior under Market Shocks: A Simulation Framework and Reinforcement-Learning Based Study

We study the behavior of an economic platform (e.g., Amazon, Uber Eats, Instacart) under shocks, such as COVID-19 lockdowns, and the effect of different regulation considerations. To this end, we develop a multi-agent simulation environment of a platform economy in a multi-period setting where shocks may occur and disrupt the economy. Buyers and sellers are heterogeneous and modeled as economically-motivated agents, choosing whether or not to pay fees to access the platform. We use deep reinforcement learning to model the fee-setting and matching behavior of the platform, and consider two major types of regulation frameworks: (1) taxation policies and (2) platform fee restrictions. We offer a number of simulated experiments that cover different market settings and shed light on regulatory tradeoffs. Our results show that while many interventions are ineffective with a sophisticated platform actor, we identify a particular kind of regulation - fixing fees to the optimal, no-shock fees while still allowing a platform to choose how to match buyers and sellers - as holding promise for promoting the efficiency and resilience of the economic system. © 2023 ACM.

The big bet Tourism and pandemic in Florence

This paper is centred on the analysis of some recent developments of the touristic system in the Italian city of Firenze. The COVID-19 pandemic hit hard the urban economic system of the city, which in the last years had increasingly become dependent on tourism. We analyse how the pandemic has been exploited by some local actors to develop their own narratives of the touristic future of the city, in light of a rebranding attempt, which was meant to reposition Firenze as an << elite >> touristic destination. We explore the contradictions between different ideas of how tourism should affect the urban fabric, to show that tourism is a contested local issue.

A Critical Perspective on the Sharing Economy in Tourism Using Examples of the Accommodation Sector in Austria

In recent decades, services on digital platforms have become increasingly important in tourism. What started with concepts of exchange as a non- or less commodified practice of sharing accommodations (e.g., Couchsurfing) became exceedingly commodified in the platform economy on a global scale and turned into successful business models (e.g., Airbnb) with strong effects on traditional provider structures and local labour market. In Austria, the economic relevance of tourism traces back more than 100 years. Today, new forms of overnight stays, such as short-term rentals (STRs), have flooded the traditional tourism industry market with offerings in the accommodation sector and pose particular challenges in the housing market in Austrian cities. The COVID-19 crisis highlights the general volatility in tourism. Therefore, alternative business models seem to be more important than before. Discussing the relevance of hybrid sharing as a business model between market-based services and platform cooperatives in the global platform economy, domestic examples from Austria serve as an incentive for other countries to show new pathways in terms of alternative platform structures and work towards a less volatile economy. In doing so, national insights of regulations of global players and new guidelines of platform-based sharing are debated too. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2022.

Commercialization on "Sharing Platforms”: The Case of Airbnb Hosting

An underdeveloped theme in scholars' understanding of the personal services sector of the platform economy—also known as the "sharing economy”—is change. Most research on ride-hail, food delivery, accommodations, and other personal services has offered largely essentialist accounts. In this paper, we focus on how platforms have become increasingly "commercialized.” In labor-intensive services, commercialization occurs as a growing fraction of the work is done by a core of full-time, dedicated workers. However, platforms that rely primarily on capital may display similar dynamics, in which a small number of participants account for the majority of activity and capture the largest share of value. In this paper, we present the first comprehensive account of commercialization of a major platform. We analyze how Airbnb markets in the 10 largest short-term rental markets in the United States changed between 2015 and 2019. We find considerable evidence of commercialization, as a rising majority of properties are rented on a very frequent basis, and casual listings, while still present, are a small and falling percentage. Relying on an original database of regulations, we show that enactment of even the strictest regulations has not durably reduced the number of listings and has had limited success in altering the mix of commercialized and casual listings over this period. We also consider the impact of COVID-19 on this platform and the sharing sector. We conclude that the short-term rental market on Airbnb has become a fairly conventional one, with little of the peer-to-peer character of its earlier days. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of American Behavioral Scientist is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Putting Fairness into the Gig Economy: Delivery Cooperatives as Alternatives to Corporate Platforms

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, platform capitalism has expanded greatly in the delivery sector. The consolidation of an oligopoly controlled by a few corporate platforms has led to precarious working conditions for "gig economy” workers. Increasing protests and strikes have led to the reform of labour directives and to the emergence of alternative ways of organising work through platform cooperatives. This article examines how these emergent platform cooperatives are mobilised and their challenges and implications. Barcelona, the cradle of many platform economy and delivery sector start-ups, is a critical case for examining the recent birth of alternative delivery cooperatives. This article is informed by the cases of three cooperatives, organised by those working as riders, providing delivery services in the city of Barcelona: Mensakas, Les Mercedes, and 2GoDelivery. The paper shows how the embeddedness of these nascent platform cooperatives in favourable governance arrangements, a supportive social and solidarity movement, the knowledge and experience of workers, and the territory where the cooperatives are embedded are essential for their creation. This multi-layered embeddedness is necessary, but not sufficient, to explain how platform cooperatives thrive. The study concludes that the agency of platform workers, who triggered this transformation, was essential for the emergence of alternative ways of organising work in the platform economy. © 2023 by the authors.

Integrated Digital Sales Platform for the Solution of Customer Needs

The digital transformation is pervasive, ubiquitous, and changing not only the market, but also its people and environment. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic speeded up the adoption of digital technologies significantly. The entire world population was confronted with an unpredictable situation and had to immediately adapt their daily lives completely. It had a significant impact on the work environment and transformed the way companies in all sectors and regions do business. Also, in the area of B2B sales, the pandemic forced buyers and sellers to undergo a huge digital transformation. These changes confront sales with new customer requirements, diverse opportunities and challenges of digital transformation, and various new possibilities to support and accelerate B2B sales through digital modules. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

"I Am Your Partner, Am I Not?” An inquiry into stakeholder inclusion in platform organizations in times of crisis

In this paper we contribute to the understanding of how failed stakeholder inclusion in times of crisis can lead to distrust of platform organizations. Drawing on the revelatory case of Airbnb, we explore how stakeholder inclusion was practiced when the platform was confronted with the COVID-19 pandemic, a severe context in which its business practices were disrupted and social interactions uprooted. Our qualitative analysis suggests that platform leaders failed to notice a dissonance between articulated stakeholder meaning and understanding (i.e., what they said) and the crisis response practices implemented (i.e., what they did and did not do). This ultimately fostered distrust and selective disengagement as stakeholders re-interpreted Airbnb's claims about their role and how stakeholders were given voice in times of crisis. Drawing on research in psychology, we utilize the concept of inattentional blindness as a novel metaphorical explanation for failed stakeholder inclusion in platform organizations in times of crisis. © 2023 The Author(s)

Gig Work, Telework, Precarity, and the Pandemic

This issue examines technology-driven economic developments during the global COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Specifically, the articles cover the ways that gig work, the platform economy, and remote work have evolved during the course of the pandemic. The issue leads with articles that chart the interplay of the platform economy with various facets of the pandemic from the inequalities and risks faced by gig workers to market forces shaping the commercialization of hosting platforms. The following articles concentrate on the ways in which specific structural conditions—digital infrastructure as well as the structure of the economy—influence the unequal distribution of telework in Uruguay and the relationship between informality and remote work opportunities across Latin America. The last two articles explore remote work in Asia and North America. In the first of these two articles remote work in Japan is examined in order to investigate the cultural sources of resistance to the adoption of remote work. In the second and concluding article, the remote work preferences of U.S. adults are analyzed as a function of technology usage (videoconferencing versus instant messaging) as well as sociodemographic and occupational attributes. © 2023 SAGE Publications.

Towards green recovery: Platform economy and its impact on carbon emissions in China

China's economy and environment urgently require a green recovery as COVID-19's consequences expand over time, and the platform economy is a practical means of pursuing this goal. By employing the Generalized Divisia Index Method (GDIM), this paper aims to analyze the impact of platform economy on carbon emissions in China during the period 2013–2020. Overall, the platform economy has increased carbon emissions, but there was a decrease in carbon emissions in the platform economy between 2014 and 2016. The scale factors of platform economy are the primary contributors to the increase in China's overall emissions and most provincial carbon emissions, while the carbon intensity of platform economy factors contributes most to the decrease in carbon emissions. In particular, the carbon intensity of platform economy factors promoted the most cumulative carbon emissions in Jiangsu, Heilongjiang, Yunnan, Qinghai, and Ningxia between 2013 and 2020, and the energy intensity of platform economy factors reduced most of the cumulative carbon emissions of Heilongjiang, Yunnan, Qinghai, and Xinjiang during the same period. From the perspective of the heterogeneity of platform economic development, the main contributors of carbon mitigation from high-platform economic provinces are intensity effects. However, the platform economic structure of low-platform economic provinces significantly reduces carbon emissions. In addition, we also found significant differences in the factors influencing emissions in different groups under the influence of the pandemic. Finally, we provide some valuable references for China's platform economic development to achieve "carbon neutrality” targets. © 2023 Economic Society of Australia, Queensland

Towards green recovery: Platform economy and its impact on carbon emissions in China

China's economy and environment urgently require a green recovery as COVID-19's consequences expand over time, and the platform economy is a practical means of pursuing this goal. By employing the Generalized Divisia Index Method (GDIM), this paper aims to analyze the impact of platform economy on carbon emissions in China during the period 2013–2020. Overall, the platform economy has increased carbon emissions, but there was a decrease in carbon emissions in the platform economy between 2014 and 2016. The scale factors of platform economy are the primary contributors to the increase in China's overall emissions and most provincial carbon emissions, while the carbon intensity of platform economy factors contributes most to the decrease in carbon emissions. In particular, the carbon intensity of platform economy factors promoted the most cumulative carbon emissions in Jiangsu, Heilongjiang, Yunnan, Qinghai, and Ningxia between 2013 and 2020, and the energy intensity of platform economy factors reduced most of the cumulative carbon emissions of Heilongjiang, Yunnan, Qinghai, and Xinjiang during the same period. From the perspective of the heterogeneity of platform economic development, the main contributors of carbon mitigation from high-platform economic provinces are intensity effects. However, the platform economic structure of low-platform economic provinces significantly reduces carbon emissions. In addition, we also found significant differences in the factors influencing emissions in different groups under the influence of the pandemic. Finally, we provide some valuable references for China's platform economic development to achieve "carbon neutrality” targets.

The futures of industrial relations in times of plague(2)

In this paper, I offer a reading of the European context in the third decade of the twenty-first century. I discuss, first, how far ' varieties of capitalism ' persist, and the implications of changes in industrial relations regimes for trade unions. Second, I consider some of the ambiguities of EU regulation. Is ' Social Europe ' (still) a bulwark against market liberalisation? Third, I draw on Polanyi to examine the rise of precarious work situations, including the emergence of the ' platform economy '. Fourth, I comment on the impact of Covid-19 and the climate crisis, before some brief final remarks about trade union responses.

Institutional relationships between European Union and Member States on economic and financial questions facing the pandemic crisis

The essay focuses on the impact of the EU financial and economic response to the COVID-19 crisis on the doctrine of conferred powers between the UE and the Member States as well as on the legal framework ruling the EU integration as such. Some of the questions that are dealt with are, e.g., what about the new framework of conditional spending while implementing and using the Next generation EU funds? Which instruments are going to be arranged to rule the consulting and monitoring functions of the EU Commission to check the use of the NGEU and MFF funds by Member States (probably adapting the outline for National Reform Programs and European Semester)? Do we need new patterns for a European public spending legal framework? The forthcoming legal scenario and the fiscal rules system once the monetary policies of the ECB and the suspension of the States' aid rules will come to an end are also at stake. It is difficult to say if the extraordinary measures of monetary policies implemented by the ECB will be brought back within the limit of the conferred powers after the crisis, or will call for a reshape of the competencies framework of the institution and its tools. The work analyses the legal conditionalities (constraints) to access the financial resources of the NGEU and MFF funds to consider what kind of legal framework is going to emerge by the new settings of rules on the main topics of these new financial proceedings. In order to assure at the same time the protection of the EU financial interest national governments shall fulfil the relevant country-specific challenges and priorities identified in the context of the European Semester as well as the recommendations set by the Commission and approved by the Council. Another issue is, then, the growing dichotomies between competition law and European policies because of the huge amount of money that will be managed by the national public authorities. Competition versus sustainable development: this could be seen as the new dimension of the intervention in the economic system by the public institutions, as it will have a severe impact on the competition not really as regulatory instruments. Tensions among competition law and new policies will then arise. All these questions seem to claim for a relevant change in the EU legal order to face the consequences of this unprecedented move in the UE economic and financial policies. While, a further question is becoming more and more relevant after the new assessment of the market regulation throughout the world. The issue of how to deal with the State aid from foreign countries to their cross-border relevant companies within the European Internal Market. The last issue dealt with in the article is, eventually, the online platform economy regulation taken in the global perspective, moving from the new pieces of legislation planned by the EU Commission (the so-called DMA and DSA) and the relevant Report collected by the US House of Representatives about Investigation on Competition in Digital Markets. © 2021 Societa Editrice il Mulino. All rights reserved.

Food Sharing in COVID-19 Era: Demand for Hospitality Services Provided via EatWith

The paper deals with hospitality services provided on the principles of sharing economy. One of the advantages of food sharing via online platforms is the authenticity and face-to-face contact with domestic providers and thus a real and deep gastronomic experience of visitors. Following, the visitors as consumers of these services, are more likely to recommend the tourism destination to their friends and relatives and to visit it repeatedly. However, the period of restrictions and lockdowns connected with the COVID-19 pandemic hindered most of these opportunities. The paper focuses on services provided via the biggest online platform EatWith and the existing and potential demand for these services in Slovakia. The aim of this paper is to analyze the demand for hospitality services provided on the principles of sharing economy on the platform EatWith and to reveal factors influencing demand during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results emerging from primary research based on a questionnaire survey conducted in the first quarter of 2021 characterize typical consumers foodies. Positive and negative motivation factors are defined by 415 respondents. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

The Potential of Digitalisation and Social Dialogue in Ensuring Post-Pandemic Labour Market Sustainability: Priorities for Ukraine

The article substantiates promising areas of resource mobilisation to counter the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the labour market, namely, through the involvement of the potential of digital, information and communication technologies and the introduction of innovative mechanisms into the system of social dialogue in the labour field at the national level. The conceptual basis of the research is the four-pillar policy framework for tackling the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis, developed by the International Labour Organization as a basic tool to address the risks and threats of the COVID-19 pandemic for global and national labour markets. This framework was used as a cross-cutting analytical scheme to analyse Ukrainian realities and further to structure the potential of digitalisation and social dialogue for overcoming the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Ukrainian labour market and for further post-pandemic recovery. Based on the modern platform approach, the authors propose a social innovation – a 3-element model of socially responsible partnership (SRP Platform), which allows significantly updating (or even rebooting) the system of communication and interaction between the social dialogue participants in Ukraine using the potential of modern network, information and communication technologies. Implementating such a model will contribute to the renewal of the social dialogue system in Ukraine and, thus, further effective counteraction against the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring the sustainable functioning of the Ukrainian labour market, and to the formation of an effective anti-pandemic state policy. Both the conceptual basis and general mechanism for implementing the SRP platform are (to a large extent) universal and can be adapted to renew social dialogue systems not only in Ukraine but also in other post-Soviet countries with a tripartite system. © 2021 Tallinn University. All rights reserved.

More Than Infrastructure Providers – Digital Platforms' Role and Power in Retail Digitalisation in Germany

Digital platforms, such as Amazon, represent the major beneficiaries of the Covid-19 crisis. This study examines the role of digital platforms and their engagement in digitalisation initiatives targeting (small) brick-and-mortar retailers in Germany, thereby contributing to a better understanding of how digital platforms augment, substitute or reorganise physical retail spaces. This study applies a mixed-method approach based on qualitative interviews, participant observation as well as media analysis. First, the study illustrates the controversial role of digital platforms by positioning themselves as supporting partners of the (offline) retailers, while simultaneously shifting power towards the platforms themselves. Second, digital platforms have established themselves not only as infrastructure providers but also as actors within these infrastructures, framing digital as well as physical retail spaces, inter alia due to their role as publicly legitimised retail advisers. Third, while institutions want to help retailers to survive, they simultaneously enhance retailers' dependency on digital platforms. © 2022 The Authors. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Royal Dutch Geographical Society / Koninklijk Nederlands Aardrijkskundig Genootschap

Platform Economy and Product Liability: Old Rules for New Markets

According to statistics, Amazon is one of the most-used online marketplaces worldwide. The COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns to reduce the spread of the virus have shown how critical online marketplaces are to enable e-commerce and keep commercial transactions alive, especially in such times when regular commerce is disrupted. However, when we buy online, we have no chance of examining whether the product works or whether it is defective. If something goes wrong when we buy a product from a third-party seller through Amazon, as consumers, we then face the challenge of trying to file a claim for the damages that might have arisen due to the defectiveness of the product. This article explores Amazon's position in this scenario, with reference to the case law from both US and EU courts and regulations, not solely from the point of view of Product Liability Law, but also according to the E-Commerce Directive liability. © 2022, Tomás Gabriel García-Micó.

COVID-19 pandemic and work precarity at digital food platforms: A delivery worker's perspective.

This study tries to establish a conceptual and empirical understanding of the precarity of work in the platform economy using food aggregators as illustrations and in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Internet access and smartphone facilitated the creation of platform aggregators, which emerged as a new workspace for young workers in India. However, food aggregators term these workers as 'delivery partners'; this changes the employer-employee relations and allows companies to avoid liabilities and reduce costs. This has led to systematic exploitation and dismal working conditions for food delivery workers. Further, Workers at platforms suffer from low wages (and benefit), absence (or lack) of welfare measures, and discriminatory practices. The COVID-19 pandemic and resultant lockdown have further aggravated the precarity of on-demand work and workers. Pandemic has shown that with loss of livelihood and income, the notion of autonomy and flexibility at work is meant for the privileged few. This precarious situation of food delivery workers calls for affirmative action in terms of regulations, social security, and protection.

Platform Economy and Product Liability: Old Rules for New Markets

According to statistics, Amazon is one of the most-used online marketplaces worldwide. The COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns to reduce the spread of the virus have shown how critical online marketplaces are to enable e-commerce and keep commercial transactions alive, especially in such times when regular commerce is disrupted. However, when we buy online, we have no chance of examining whether the product works or whether it is defective. If something goes wrong when we buy a product from a third-party seller through Amazon, as consumers, we then face the challenge of trying to file a claim for the damages that might have arisen due to the defectiveness of the product. This article explores Amazon's position in this scenario, with reference to the case law from both US and EU courts and regulations, not solely from the point of view of Product Liability Law, but also according to the E-Commerce Directive liability.

Intersectional understandings of the role and meaning of platform-mediated work in the pandemic Swedish welfare state

Digitally-mediated forms of services are increasingly normalized and rapidly transforming working and everyday lives creating new digital-social-spatial relations. The platform economy, in particular, offers new ways of work and new means of consumption. These changes challenge welfare states, both in the operations of institutions and to their foundational social goals and values. In Sweden, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and labour market segregation intersected and amplified inequalities resulting in media covering and querying the nature and role of platform-mediated work within the Swedish welfare context. Located within an intersectional perspective, this study explores how media articulations of platform-mediated work shape theoretical understandings of the platform economy during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in Sweden. This was conducted through an ethnographic content analysis (ECA) of Swedish-language newspapers between January-September 2020 (96 articles). We show understandings of the platform economy are active and shifting in temporal and spatial contexts. We highlight how work and working forms tie closely to ideas of equality and welfare in the Swedish context. Intersectional perspectives reveal the central role of power structures in local context-a specific time/place and decenters normative economic perspectives of the platform economy. This study reinforces the need for more studies on the platform economy that foreground social relations to understand inequalities produced in and through social-technological activities.