New Age Informality: Hispanics and the Sharing Economy

Michael J Pisani

doi:10.3390/admsci11010023

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to advance understanding of the Hispanic contribution to the engagement and production of the sharing and informal economies in the US. The study is situated within the domains of the sharing economy and informality within a broader frame of entrepreneurship. Specifically, Hispanic participation rates, rationale for engagement, and the major drivers of involvement in the production of the sharing and informal economies are analyzed. To evaluate this, data are reported from a nationally representative subsample of Hispanics derived from the US Federal Reserve Board’s Enterprising and Informal Work Activities Survey (EIWA) conducted in the late fall of 2015. The finding is that more than one-third of Hispanics engage in EIWA. Hispanics participate in EIWA primarily as a means to earn extra income or as a key avenue to earn a living. By choice, relatively affluent Hispanics have the largest stake in sharing and informal economies. However, it is the lowest income Hispanics that engage in EIWA out of necessity. The major drivers of EIWA participation among Hispanics are revealed. This is the first known study with a nationally representative sample of Hispanics focused on participation rates, rationale for engagement, and drivers of involvement in the production of new age sharing and informal economies.

Highlights

New Age Informality: Hispanics andWhile informal markets are as old as the government institutions created to regulate them, informality in the age of the smartphone began not long ago in 2007
We present our results in subsections based upon our three research questions focused on the racial and ethnic differences in participation in the sharing and informal economies (RQ#1), the rationale of Hispanic engagement in the sharing and informal economies (RQ#2), and the drivers of Hispanic participation in the sharing and informal economies (RQ#3)
We report the engagement in Enterprising and Informal Work Activities Survey (EIWA) for Hispanics and other racial and ethnic groups

Summary

Introduction

While informal markets are as old as the government institutions created to regulate them, informality in the age of the smartphone began not long ago in 2007. The smartphone ushered in and standardized the technological sharing economy. 2) argues that “a radical shift is underway” fueled by the sharing economy that he argues achieved scale by 2010 and that this radical shift is transforming the nature of employment. Employment and especially earnings within the sharing economy is under-reported, and oftentimes goes unreported, to government authorities enhancing the informal nature of much of the sharing economy. The popular term sharing economy is used extensively. Alternate terms for this phenomenon include crowd-based capitalism, gig economy, and collaborative consumption among others

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