Institut für Höhere Studien - Institute for Advanced Studies
IRIHS - Institutional Repository at IHSNot a member yet
6516 research outputs found
Sort by
The Tinder logic: How gig economy matchmaking websites promote lookism, objectification of domestic workers and sexual entitlement of male clients
No full textIn recent years, platform mediated work has been on a rise. While most studies on the gig-economy focus on male-dominated service sectors (e.g. ride-hailing or food delivery), platform-mediated cleaning services have so far received little attention. In the sense that domestic work is predominantly provided by people with marginalized gender identities, this imbalance reflects an institutional gender bias. Although some scholars aim to counter this bias by examining working conditions of domestic cleaners in the gig-economy, literature that scrutinizes the design and functioning of cleaning platform websites serving as intermediaries between cleaners and clients is still lacking.
Developing an understanding of the technology that connects service providers with potential clients is crucial because the layout, the algorithms and the affordances of platforms shape the interaction between domestic workers and customers. Since the technological design of platforms has the potential to exacerbate existing inequalities, there is a need for research on the impact of the websites setup on female domestic cleaning staff working on the black-market, a particularly vulnerable group which lacks social protection and occupational safety. Therefore, this paper examines the normative structures that are integrated in the design of Austria’s largest domestic-work-providing platform ‘betreut.at’ (part of care.com Europe) and analyzes the implications arising for the professional relationship.
The data collection is based on the walkthrough method. This technique is used for a systemic step through of the website and thereby allows to make its implicit technological mechanisms and embedded assumptions explicit and visible. The data is then interpreted by applying discursive interface analysis, which provides a critical perspective on power imbalances occurring in the design and the functional, cognitive and sensory affordances of the interface. Questions such as “What beliefs are reinforced through the functions (what should the user want)?” and “What are the consequences of design choices” guide the interpretation process. Furthermore, the methodological design is complemented by 15 problem-centered interviews with female platform-based cleaners working in private households in Vienna in the informal economy.
The analysis suggests that from a client’s perspective, the interface of the platform resembles the design of the dating app ‘Tinder’. The visual presentation of cleaners is prioritized and paired with information on their age, location, years of experience as well as their rating score. Clients are asked whether they are interested - not in the service provision but - in the respective person (‘Interested in ‘name’?’). Altogether the Tinder design logic and the focus on cleaner’s profile picture promote the idea that domestic workers are expected to provide erotic capital. This is also reflected in the experience of female home cleaners in our sample, who are confronted with the new requirement of visually presenting themselves in appealing ways in order to get gigs, and report regular requests for sexual favors or discrimination in the form of lookism by male clients. Overall, the results show the centrality of the platform infrastructure design in co-shaping and transforming the organization of domestic work in the informal economy
Fiscal policies in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina: are spending or revenue measures more effective?
Get PDFWe examine the effectiveness of different fiscal policies in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH). For this purpose, we use a structural macroeconomic model for the FBiH. In this model, GDP in the Federation is influenced by world demand and by domestic demand in the Federation. Domestic demand comprises consumption of private households, public consumption, and gross fixed capital formation. Employment depends positively on GDP and negatively on the tax wedge, i.e., the net wage plus social security contribution rates (including the unemployment insurance), and the personal income tax rate in the Federation. The latter allows the analysis of the impact of changes in social security contribution rates or in the income tax rate in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The following Federation-specific policy instruments are implemented in the model for the FBiH: Pension funds contribution rate in FBiH; contribution rate for health insurance in FBiH; contribution rate for the unemployment insurance in FBiH; benefits from social security; direct tax rates (income tax rate, corporate tax rate); public consumption in FBiH. Our results show that policy measures that reduce the tax wedge on labour income are highly effective in stimulating employment. Due to the large elasticity of imports with respect to demand, pure demand-side measures have little impact on real variables, indicating that a small open economy like the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina has only little scope for influencing macroeconomic developments with pure demand management policies. Our results confirm earlier theoretical and empirical studies showing that the labour market can best be influenced positively by reducing the tax wedge. The multipliers of income tax reductions are larger and oscillate more than the effects of the other fiscal policy measures
Kapitel IV: Technical Summary
No full textThis technical summary provides an overview of the main statements of the APCC SR Structures for Climate-Friendly Living chapters. Based on scientific literature, the report assesses different approaches for transforming structures in order to make climate-friendly living in Austria possible and make it permanently and quickly the new status quo
60 Jahre Forschung, die zählt. Aufbruch und Neuausrichtung.
No full textAnlässlich des 60-jährigen Jubiläums des Instituts für Höhere Studie, werfen wir in einer zweiteiligen Blog-Serie einen Blick zurück auf die Entwicklung des Instituts. Der erste Teil ist hier erschienen, in diesem zweiten Teil geht es um die Phase des neuerlichen Aufbruchs in den 90er-Jahren und die Neuausrichtung ab den 2010er-Jahren
»Virtual Skills Lab« – Transdisziplinäres Forschen zur Vermittlung sozialer Kompetenzen im digitalen Wandel
Get PDFInter- bzw. transdisziplinäre Forschungsarbeit ist im aktuellen Wissenschaftsbereich häufig gängige Praxis, obwohl die Verständnisse über Umfang und Strukturen einer solchen Zusammenarbeit keineswegs einheitlich sind. Die Autor*innen vermitteln anhand eines Virtual-Reality-Trainings für soziale Kompetenzen Einblicke in die Prozesse des gemeinsamen Forschens. In einer Reihe von Gesprächen reflektieren sie über die Ideenfindung zu ihrem Projekt des »Virtual Skills Lab«, die Entwicklung der dazugehörigen Forschungsfrage sowie deren Ausarbeitung in Form der interaktiven Szene. Entlang dieses Beispiels für virtuelles Training werden schließlich praktische Empfehlungen zur Gestaltung der übergreifenden Zusammenarbeit im digitalen Wandel angeboten
Biased expectations and labor market outcomes: Evidence from German survey data and implications for the East-West wage gap
Get PDFWe measure individual bias in labor market expectations in German survey data and find that workers on average significantly overestimate their individual probabilities to separate from their job when employed as well to find a job when unemployed. These biases vary significantly between population groups. Most notably, East Germans are significantly more pessimistic than West Germans. We find a significantly negative relationship between the pessimistic bias in job separation expectations and wages, and a significantly positive relationship between optimistic bias in job finding expectations and reservation incomes. We interpret and quantify the effects of (such) expectation biases on the labor market equilibrium in a search and matching model of the labor market. Removing the biases could substantially increase wages and expected lifetime income in East Germany. The bias difference in labor market expectations explains part of the East-West German wage gap
Wage Bargaining and Labor Market Policy with Biased Expectations
Get PDFRecent research documents mounting evidence for sizable and persistent biases in individual labor market expectations. This paper incorporates subjective expectations into a general equilibrium labor market model and studies the implications of biased expectations for wage bargaining, vacancy creation, worker flows and labor market policies. Importantly, we find that under the widely used period-by-period Nash bargaining protocol, the model generates a counterfactual relationship between workers' job separation expectations and wages. Instead, a wage setting process with less frequent wage renegotiations is found to be empirically consistent. Moreover, we show that the presence of biased beliefs can qualitatively alter the equilibrium effects of labor market policies. Lastly, when allowing for biased firms' beliefs, we establish that only the difference between firms' and workers' biases matters for the bargained wage but not the size of biases
Employing the unemployed of Marienthal
No full textIn this public lecture Prof. Kasy presented his work on scientifically evaluating the guaranteed job program (MAGMA) that started in October 2020, in the municipality of Gramatneusiedl. This program provided individually tailored, voluntary jobs to all long-term unemployed residents.
The evaluation was based on three estimation approaches:
- The first approach uses pairwise matched randomization of participants into waves for program adoption;
- The second approach uses a pre-registered synthetic control at the municipality level;
- The third approach compares program participants to observationally similar individuals in control municipalities.
These different approaches separated out direct effects of program participation, anticipation effects of future participation, and municipality-level equilibrium effects.
Although the study found strong positive impacts of program participation on participants’ economic (employment, income, security) and non-economic wellbeing (social recognition, time structure, social interactions, collective purpose), it did not find effects on physical health, or risk- and time-preferences.
At the municipality level, a large reduction of long-term unemployment was found, and a slightly attenuated reduction of total unemployment. There is evidence of positive anticipation effects in terms of subjective wellbeing, status, and social inclusion for future program participants, relative to ineligible control-town individuals
Arbeitsrealitäten von Haushaltsreinigungskräften in der Gig-Economy: Aktuelle Befunde aus Wien
No full textIn gegenwärtigen kapitalistischen Gesellschaften wird Haushaltsreinigung zunehmend ausgelagert und vermarktlicht. Die wachsende Zahl von Frauen aus der Mittelschicht, die in den formellen Arbeitsmarkt eintreten, führt zu einer „sozialen Reproduktionslücke“, die überwiegend von mehrfach marginalisierten Migrantinnen im informellen Sektor gefüllt wird. Damit werden globale Ungleichheiten in Privathaushalte getragen, die Unternehmen, wie Gig Economy Plattformen, für profitorientierte Interessen nutzen.
Während es vielfältige Studien zu den Logiken oder rechtlichen Regulierungsmöglichkeiten der On Demand Economy gibt, wurden die Erfahrungen von Plattformarbeiterinnen in Wohnräumen bisher unzureichend beforscht, nicht zuletzt aufgrund der sprachlichen und räumlichen Fragmentierung der Gruppe. Dies nimmt sich das Forschungsprojekt GigClean zum Anlass und untersucht, wie Haushaltsreinigungskräfte in Wien die Arbeit in der Gig-Economy erleben.
Die Studie wird von den AK Digifonds gefördert und seit April 2022 am Institut für Höhere Studien von Laura Wiesböck, Angelique Vo und Julia Radlherr durchgeführt. Das methodische Design umfasst 15 problemzentrierte Interviews. Die Ergebnisse verweisen darauf, dass Reinigungsarbeit über online Vermittlungsplattformen das Risiko birgt, Arbeitsbedingungen zum Nachteil von Reinigungskräften zu verändern, Jobanforderungen und Lohndruck zu erhöhen wie auch bestehende Informations- und Machtasymmetrien zwischen Arbeiterinnen und Kund:innen zu verstärken