Platform work in a coordinated market economy

Abstract

To investigate whether platform work can grow even in political economies with an adverse institutional environment, we examine Germany as a least likely case. We assess what constrains the growth of platform work in Germany as well as whether existing economic and social institutions adapt to it. We find that platform work is being accommodated in the German political economy, but in a very limited space. The most important institution constraining platform work is social insurance, especially by increasing pressure to rein in bogus self-employment. Government has so far not seen a need to intervene with new regulation. Within the space that has been carved out for platform work, the traditional institutions of German social partnership are adapting to accommodate and monitor it. Overall, the main actors in the German political economy have a watchful eye on platform work but deal with the phenomenon in a characteristically consensual way.