Outside Options and Labor Supply: Evidence from the Gig Economy

Sydnee Caldwell and Emily Oehlsen

No 35626, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We use randomized pay experiments among Uber drivers, paired with a natural experiment in access to a competitor, to examine how outside options shape labor supply to the firm. When hours are flexible, the firm-specific labor supply elasticity combines a market-hours component and a firm-substitution component. Access to a single competing platform nearly doubles drivers’ firm-specific elasticity and cuts the implied monopsony markdown from 68% to about 50%. The same experiments identify sex differences: women are about twice as elastic to the market as men, yet no less elastic to their employer.

JEL-codes: J2 J20 J42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-08
Note: LS
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