Sam Jones presents on the impact of digital labour market platforms at SBE Annual Meeting

From 12 to 15 December 2023, the Brazilian Econometric Society hosted its 45th Annual Meeting at the Windsor Barra Hotel in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The event featured a series of presentations on research carried out by academics from around the world, as well as two mini-courses.

Sam Jones, UNU-WIDER Research Fellow and Resident Advisor in the Inclusive growth in Mozambique programme (IGM) based at the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) of Mozambique, presented findings from an experimental study carried out with Kunal Sen, UNU-WIDER Director, which analysed the impact of digital labour market platforms — both for formal and informal work — on employment results among young people in Mozambique.

According to the researcher, results of this experimental study show low impact on average but highlight important gender differences with men benefitting moderately more than women, in particular in terms of results in formal employment. Simultaneously, positive benefits were registered among women with manual qualifications using the platform focusing on informal work. The platform’s both positive and negative effects for women show that although the task-based digital platforms may help serve specific market niches with high search frictions they can also reproduce gender barriers.

The event gathered a wide audience which included, among others, academia from around the world, as well as policy makers from Brazil.