The Value of Flexible Work: Evidence from Uber Drivers

Technology has facilitated new, nontraditional work arrangements, including the ride-sharing company Uber. Uber drivers provide rides anytime they choose. Using data on hourly earnings and driving, we document driver utilization of this real-time flexibility. We propose that the value of flexibility can be measured as deriving from time variation in the drivers’ reservation wage. Measuring time variation in drivers’ reservation wages allows us to estimate the surplus and labor supply implications of Uber relative to alternative, less-flexible work arrangements. Despite other drawbacks to the Uber arrangement, we estimate that Uber drivers earn more than twice the surplus they would in less-flexible arrangements.

• Publication year

  2019

• Venue

  Journal of Political Economy

• Publication date

  2019-10-31

• Fields of study

  Business, Economics

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1086/702171
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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