【题目】Gig Jobs as a Buffer: How Employment Contract and Production Evolve in Firms

【主讲人】王睿新副教授

【主持人】董志强教授

【时间】2025年10月29日（星期三）14:00

【地点】大学城校园文科二栋536会议室

【内容摘要】

Formal and long-term contracts provide employees with insurance against income uncertainties (Holmström, 1983), but they do so at the cost of sacrificing potential opportunities for excessive earnings. As the gig economy rises, employees increasingly prefer short-term contracts, viewing gig jobs on platforms as a buffer against such risks. Consequently, firms adapt by shortening contract durations and increasing the use of employee leasing, which may lead to shifts in the mode of management and production. We empirically explore how labor contracts and production evolve in firms, using data from the China Employer-Employee Survey (CEES). We employ a staggered difference-in-differences (DID) model, adopting the entry of food delivery platforms as a shock to the rise of the gig economy. We find that: (1) the entry of food delivery platforms significantly reduces the likelihood of employment contracts and shortens their duration; (2) these impacts are stronger for frontline or non-technical workers, but weaker for those with consumption commitments (e.g., house mortgages); (3) the impacts are stronger for OEM manufacturers, who can actually take advantage of this shift in the labor market, but weaker for high-tech firms; (4) in response, the average wage for long-term contracts increases, while that for short-term contracts decreases; (5) in addition, firms significantly reduce on-the-job training but increase the adoption of robots in production. By reshaping the labor market, the gig economy not only creates flexibility even in traditional sectors such as manufacturing but also poses challenges for traditional modes of management and production.

【个人简介】

王睿新，哈尔滨工业大学(深圳)经济管理学院副教授。荷兰蒂尔堡大学(Tilburg University)经济学博士，香港科技大学经济学硕士，大连理工大学经济学学士。曾任教于香港浸会大学经济学系，并在国际食物政策研究所(IFPRI)短期工作。主要研究领域为发展经济学，聚焦经济转型和产业升级。目前主持、参与国家和省部级项目多项，2019年起，连续参与组织了多轮中国企业创新创业调查(ESIEC)。论文发表于Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, The China Quarterly, International Tax and Public Finance, China Economic Review,《经济学(季刊)》,《经济科学》等中英文一流期刊，研究成果多次获中央和省部级领导批示，并曾获工业和信息化部优秀研究成果一等奖(2022)，《经济科学》年度优秀论文(2024)，首届中国劳动经济学者论坛年会最佳论文奖(2016)。