The Digital Economy and the European Labour Market

With a focus on the European labour market, this book seeks to understand how digital transformation affects changes in employee-employer relations. These consequences include shifts in job security and job flexibility as well as alternative work arrangements in the digital economy. This phenomenon has both positive and negative implications for employees and employers. The book presents a theoretical, conceptual and empirical analysis of employment relations in the digital economy, which are manifested, among others, in flexible or non-standard forms of employment, contract work and a radical shift from position-based to skill-based work. The approach taken in the book provides researchers and students of economics, business and other social sciences with an overview of interdisciplinary theoretical and conceptual perspectives and frameworks on labour market and employment relations. In particular, it presents a comprehensive range of research on flexible forms of employment in the digital economy. The range of issues covered is also tailored to business practitioners who wish to understand the ongoing changes in employment relations and the emergence of new forms of work as a result of digital transformation. It will also be of value to representatives of labour market institutions involved in implementing new forms of work and employer-employee relationships in Industry 4.0.

Introduction Part I: The labour market in the digital economy 1. Labour market dualism in the digital economy 2. Opportunities and consequences of digital transformation for the labour market: a systematic literature review 3. Labour market in the age of digital transformation: evidence from EU countries Part II: The labour market and employment relations in the digital economy: theoretical background 4. Labour market segmentation theory and the digital economy 5. New institutional economics and the digital economy 6. Behavioural economics perspective and the digital economy 7. Innovation theory and the digital economy 8. Agency theory and the digital economy 9. Regional economic theories and the digital economy Part III: Flexible forms of employment in the digital economy: exploratory research 10. Overview of non-standard work arrangements 11. Highly skilled solo self-employed individuals in the digital economy 12. Platform work in the digital economy 13. Casual work in the digital economy 14. Remote work in the digital economy 15. Job sharing in the digital economy 16. Interim management in the digital economy 17. Zero-hours contracts in the United Kingdom 18. Profile of digital workers in Spain

Maria Urbaniec is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Cracow University of Economics, Cracow, Poland.