Using a discrete-choice experiment with nearly 800 taxi, delivery, and cleaning platform workers in Germany, Italy, and Poland, we estimate how much workers value paid sick leave and paid holidays. Workers who entered platform work out of economic necessity (the "pushed") value such social protection provision much more than those attracted by its flexibility and advantages (the "pulled").
We study the impact of the inflow of Ukrainian refugees into Poland following Russia's 2022 invasion on business creation. Ukrainians accounted for 7% of new firm registrations in 2022–23. We find that 10 extra Ukrainian registrations lead to 3.4 to 5.3 more Polish firms.
We study the effects of industrial robot on household income inequality in 14 European countries between 2006–2018. Automation reduced relative hourly wages and employment of directly affected European demographic groups. Using the estimated wage and employment shocks as input to the EUROMOD microsimulation model, we find that automation had tiny effects on income inequality. Transfers played a key role in cushioning the transmission of these shocks to household incomes.
Measuring worker-level job tasks of Ukrainian war refugees in Poland, we find substantial task routinization, namely performing more routine-intensive jobs in Poland after displacement than in Ukraine before the full-scale war. People who experience a greater task routinization after finding a job in Poland in 2022 were more likely to revise their plans towards return to Ukraine and staying in Poland by 2023.
We study workers’ and employers’ preferences for remote work, estimating the willingness to pay for it using discrete choice experiments with more than 10,000 workers and more than 1,500 employers in Poland. Both workers and employers prefer hybrid over fully-remote work. However, only 25-35% of employers – those with positive views on remote work productivity and high-quality talent management – value remote work costs in line with workers’ willingness to pay, particularly in non-routine cognitive occupations.
Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 65(3), 378-396
We study the effect of the adoption of automation technologies – industrial robots, and software and databases – on the incidence of atypical employment in 13 EU countries between 2006 and 2018. Robots do not affect the total employment rate but significantly increase the involuntary atypical employment share, mainly through fixed-term work. Software and databases increase total employment and are neutral for atypical employment. Higher trade union density mitigates the robots’ impact on atypical employment, while employment protection legislation plays no role.
