An Analysis of the Labor Market for Uber's Driver-Partners in the United States

Jonathan Hall and Alan Krueger
Additional contact information
Jonathan Hall: Uber Technologies

Working Papers from Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section.

Abstract: This paper provides the first comprehensive analysis of Uber's driver-partners, based on both survey data and anonymized, aggregated administrative data. Uber has grown at an exponential rate over the last few years, and drivers who partner with Uber appear to be attracted to the platform in large part because of the flexibility it offers, the level of compensation, and the fact that earnings per hour do not vary much with hours worked, which facilitates part-time and variable hours. Uber's driver-partners are more similar in terms of their age and education to the general workforce than to taxi drivers and chauffeurs. Uber may serve as a bridge for many seeking other employment opportunities, and it may attract well-qualified individuals because, with Uber's star rating system, driver-partners' reputations are explicitly shared with potential customers. Most of Uber's driver-partners had full- or part-time employment prior to joining Uber, and many continued in those positions after starting to drive with the Uber platform, which makes the flexibility to set their own hours all the more valuable. Uber's driver-partners also often cited the desire to smooth fluctuations in their income as a reason for partnering with Uber.

Keywords: Uber (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J21 L62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (50)

Downloads: (external link)
https://dataspace.princeton.edu/bitstream/88435/dsp010z708z67d/5/587.pdf
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 500 Internal Server Error

Related works:
Working Paper: An Analysis of the Labor Market for Uber’s Driver-Partners in the United States (2016)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pri:indrel:587

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Bobray Bordelon ().