Barriers to growth in the ‘Sharing Economy’

2014-2016

I was a contributor to the Roosevelt Institute’s initiative to imagine the Next American Economy. This participation included a series of convenings with economists, data scientists, policymakers, and innovators shaking up the labor and financial services worlds.

As part of that body of work, I wrote a thought brief on peer-to-peer marketplaces and the future of work. The Roosevelt Institute asked me to entertain policy amendments and what the world would look like if all of my recommendations for worker support were implemented.

In the paper, I recommended policy amendments to the independent contractor status and to consider a third worker classification in the liminal space between “employee” and “independent contractor.” I proffer policy around data ownership and periodic, collective bargaining of platforms’ Terms of Service. I recommend easing income penalties by reducing taxation on a certain percentage of peer economy income; once a provider exceeds that minimum, then to consider that provider as a small business. And I would like to see a flourishing of creative financial products whose business models enable people to manage their income without costing them that entire income.

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