Varieties of Capitalism in the digital age - France, Sweden and the United Kingdom’s institutional response to the platform economy

Abstract: The objective of this study is to investigate how European trade unions and governments in France, Sweden and the UK have reacted to the rapid growth of the platform economy. The platform economy (also commonly referred to as gig-economy, sharing economy etc.) including Uber, Airbnb and Deliveroo etc., has already managed to transform some sectors of the economy and contributed to the creation of a ‘winner-takes-most’ dynamics with a decreased labour share. Social dialogue represents a strong factor in promoting job creation and job quality in a changing world of work, but currently, there is a lack of literature covering trade unions reaction to the platform economy. This study aims to fill this gap, employing an institutional approach combining Varieties of Capitalism with Varieties of Welfare in order to analyse differences and similarities in actor’s behaviour. The comparison is made within five institutional areas: Industrial Relations; Vocational training and education; Inter-firm relation; Employees and Social protection using complementary materials as well as conducted interviews with trade union representatives from each country as well as with a representative from Uber. Political and economic institutions shape trade union and government’s reactions, but there is also evidence for an institutional change within the case of France.