平台经济对灵活就业者收入和主观福利的影响研究

沈坤荣　张锐敏

（南京大学）

内容提要：平台经济的兴起，引发了人们对灵活就业者收入和主观福利的关注。本文基于2012—2018年中国劳动力动态调查数据库，分析平台经济对灵活就业者收入和主观福利的影响及其机制。研究结果表明，平台经济能够提高灵活就业者收入和主观福利，并且该结论在考虑内生性问题及各种稳健性检验后依然成立。进一步分析结果表明，平台经济通过提高就业匹配度和社会资本的途径实现灵活就业者收入和主观福利的提升；文化程度能够调节平台经济对灵活就业者收入和主观福利的影响；相对于灵活就业者而言，平台经济对正规就业者主观福利的影响效应更大，但对其收入并无显著影响。异质性分析结果显示，平台经济对灵活就业者中的青年、男性、文化程度较高、城镇户口、东部地区个体的收入和主观福利的提升效应明显。因此，政府应加强对特殊群体的技能培训，提供职业转型支持和必要的社会保障，以促进平台经济持续健康发展，进一步提升灵活就业者收入和主观福利。

关键词：平台经济；灵活就业者；劳动收入；主观福利；就业匹配度；社会资本

作者简介：沈坤荣，南京大学商学院/经济增长研究院教授、博士生导师，南京，210093；张锐敏，南京大学商学院博士研究生，通信作者。

基金项目：国家社会科学基金重大项目“我国高质量发展的能力基础、能力结构与推进机制研究”(19ZDA049）

引用格式：沈坤荣,张锐敏.平台经济对灵活就业者收入和主观福利的影响研究[J].经济与管理研究,2024,45(11):86-103.

Impact of the Platform Economy on the Income and Subjective Welfare of Flexible Employees

SHEN Kunrong, ZHANG Ruimin

(Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093)

Abstract: The platform economy not only plays a key role in optimizing resource allocation and promoting inclusive economic growth but also triggers new employment phenomena. Based on data from the China Labor-force Dynamic Survey (CLDS) from 2012 to 2018, this paper constructs the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model and the ordered probit model to analyze the impact of the platform economy on the income and subjective welfare of flexible employees and its impact mechanism.

The results show that the platform economy can improve the income and subjective welfare of flexible employees. This conclusion is still valid after considering the endogeneity and conducting various robustness tests. Mechanism analysis shows that the platform economy can improve their income and subjective welfare by enhancing the employment matching degree and social capital, and the educational level can regulate this impact mechanism. Furthermore, the platform economy has a greater impact on the subjective welfare of regular employees than that of flexible employees but exerts no significant impact on their income. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the improvement is prominent for flexible employees who are young and male, possess higher education levels, hold urban residency, and reside in the eastern region.

The innovations are as follows. First, this paper comprehensively measures the development level of the platform economy from multiple dimensions, which helps to evaluate the impact of the platform economy on flexible employees more accurately. Second, this paper analyzes the heterogeneity of flexible employees in terms of gender, age, household registration, education level and region, providing corresponding policy guidance for promoting the sustained and healthy development of the platform economy and further improving the income and subjective welfare of flexible employees. Third, this paper systematically identifies the impact mechanism, exploring the transmission mechanism from the development of the platform economy to the improvement of employment matching degree and social capital, and the enhancement of income and subjective welfare levels of flexible employees.

Based on the above conclusions, the government should strengthen policy guidance and support. First, the government should enhance vocational skills training for women, the middle-aged and the elderly, and rural residents engaged in flexible employment to help them acquire skills to adapt to the digital age. Second, the government should improve the medical insurance and unemployment insurance systems by broadening their coverage to ensure that all employees, including those engaged in flexible employment, have access to basic health care and guarantee that all unemployed people can receive necessary financial support. Finally, the government should provide entrepreneurship support, tax incentives, entrepreneurship training and other policies to encourage and support more flexible employees to engage in platform-related entrepreneurship.

Keywords: platform economy; flexible employee; labor income; subjective welfare; employment matching degree; social capital