Sharing Economy’
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The Passions and the Interests: Unpacking the ‘Sharing Economy’ Cristiano Codagnone Federico Biagi Fabienne Abadie 2016 EUR 27914 EN This publication is a Science for Policy report by the Joint Research Centre, the European Commission’s in-house science service. It aims to provide evidence-based scientific support to the European policy-making process. The scientific output expressed does not imply a policy position of the European Commission. Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use which might be made of this publication. Contact information Address: Edificio Expo, C/ Inca Garcilaso, 3. E-41092 Seville, Spain E-mail: [email protected] Tel.: +34 954488318 Fax : +34 954488300 JRC Science Hub https://ec.europa.eu/jrc JRC101279 EUR 27914 EN PDF ISBN 978-92-79-58263-9 ISSN 1831-9424 doi:10.2791/474555 LF-NA-27914-EN-N © European Union, 2016 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. How to cite: Cristiano Codagnone, Federico Biagi, Fabienne Abadie: The Passions and the Interests: Unpacking the 'Sharing Economy'. Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, JRC Science for Policy Report EUR 27914 EN, doi:10.2791/474555 All images © European Union 2016 Abstract Digital platforms generally placed under the ‘sharing economy’ and various other labels match different groups of users and providers and enable the increase in scale and speed for traditional transactions such as selling, renting, lending, labour trade, and provision of services. In many cases, these platform-mediated activities involve peer-to- peer or peer-to-business transactions that occur in a regulatory vacuum. Since 2014, the phenomenal growth of a few large commercial ‘sharing’ platforms, the increasing number of economic sectors affected, and the conflicting interests among the stakeholders involved have made the ‘sharing economy’ a domain of conflictual rhetoric and public controversies, legal disputes, and even violent protests. The various expressions used to refer to ‘sharing’ platforms, by now appropriated by practitioners and stakeholders, are ‘floating signifiers’ for all sorts of different activities, in what can be called the rhetorical politics of platformisation. Terms and concepts are used in such confused and confusing ways that it is at times difficult to ascertain whether advocates, opponents, regulators, and policy makers are discussing the same phenomenon. There is a closed self-reproducing loop between conceptual ambiguity, rhetorical controversies, and lack of sound measurement and empirical evidence. This loop, in turn, limits the space for a rational debate of alternative policy options and contributes to the fragmented regulatory approaches which currently address the ‘sharing economy’. This theoretically-inspired and empirically-informed critical essay (i) unpacks the ‘sharing economy’ rhetoric, (ii) clears the field of semantic and conceptual ambiguity by providing a heuristically- useful and empirically-grounded typology, (iii) maps the controversies against available empirical evidence on the functioning and on the impacts of ‘sharing’ platforms, (iv) reviews the debate and the literature which focuses on regulatory and policy issues, and (v) discusses all these aspects in terms of their policy implications, and of future European research on this topic. It does so in a unique way, because of the extensive evidence base used and the inter-disciplinary approach it takes in which theoretical and empirical economics, sociology, anthropology, regulatory and legal studies, and rhetorical analysis converge. The evidence comprises: a) 120 media items (newspapers and magazine articles; blogs especially by ‘sharing economy’ advocacy groups and organisations; industry briefs etc.); b) in-depth analysis of a purposive sample of 70 platforms (website, blog, public relations and self-reports, etc.); c) 140 sources, consisting of scientific items (115) and broadly defined reports (25), selected using a formalised protocol and systematically reviewed; c) about 60 reports released by interested parties (industrial associations, platforms own reports and public relation materials); d) 70 indirectly relevant scientific contributions and policy reports. Title: The Passions and the Interests: Unpacking the ‘Sharing Economy’ TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ......................................................................................... 3 Foreword ............................................................................................ 4 Executive Summary ....................................................................................... 6 1 Introduction .......................................................................................... 12 1.1 Context: disputed values and uncertain facts ............................................ 12 1.2 Policy Relevance ................................................................................... 14 1.3 Objectives, approach, and sources .......................................................... 16 2 Conceptualisation, sizing, and future prospects .................................... 20 2.1 Conceptual clarification and typology ....................................................... 20 2.2 Dimensional relevance ........................................................................... 25 2.3 Trends, drivers, and development paths ................................................... 27 3 Main findings: rhetoric, motives, functioning, and impacts ................... 30 3.1 Rhetorical and more tangible ‘battles’ ...................................................... 30 3.1.1 Neo-liberal co-optation and impacts as lobbying .............................. 31 3.1.2 Do the ‘sharing economy’ benefits trickle down? .............................. 33 3.1.3 Tangible ‘battles’ ......................................................................... 33 3.2 Motivation to participate and social capital ............................................... 35 3.3 Platforms functioning: matching and ratings ............................................. 36 3.4 Impacts: ex-ante hypotheses and empirical evidence ................................ 39 3.4.1 The ex-ante big picture................................................................. 39 3.4.2 Environmental impacts ................................................................. 41 3.4.3 Socio-economic impacts ............................................................... 41 4 On regulatory matters ............................................................................. 46 4.1 Debating regulations ............................................................................. 46 4.2 Consumer protection open issues ............................................................ 48 4.2.1 Negative externalities and issues of liability and insurance ................ 48 4.2.2 Information asymmetries and related issues ................................... 49 4.2.3 Licensing and certification ............................................................. 50 4.2.4 Data and privacy ......................................................................... 50 4.3 Potential issues for competition law ......................................................... 50 5 Discussion and conclusions ..................................................................... 52 5.1 Discourses and concepts ........................................................................ 52 5.2 Facts ................................................................................................... 55 5.3 Regulation ............................................................................................ 57 5.4 Future research .................................................................................... 60 6 Technical Annex .................................................................................... 63 6.1 Method and sources............................................................................... 63 6.1.1 Design ........................................................................................ 63 6.1.2 Process and sources ..................................................................... 64 6.1.3 Limitations .................................................................................. 65 6.2 Supplementary material on definitions and classifications ........................... 66 6.2.1 Selective review of definitions ....................................................... 66 6.2.2 Broad objects-based categorisations .............................................. 69 6.2.3 Sector-based categorisations ......................................................... 72 6.3 Synthetic and analytical accounts of sources............................................. 74 6.3.1 Summary overview of scoping review findings ................................. 74 6.3.2 Analytical tabulation of scoping review findings................................ 77 6.3.3 Selective review of ‘sharing’ platforms ............................................ 116 1 Notes ............................................................................................ 126 References ............................................................................................ 135 List of Figures ............................................................................................ 156 List of Tables ............................................................................................ 156 List