This Handbook grapples conceptually and practically with what the sharing economy - which includes entities ranging from large for-profit firms like Airbnb, Uber, Lyft, Taskrabbit, and Upwork to smaller, non-profit collaborative initiatives - means for law, and how law, in turn, is shaping critical aspects of the sharing economy. Featuring a diverse set of contributors from many academic disciplines and countries, the book compiles the most important, up-to-date research on the regulation of the sharing economy. The first part surveys the nature of the sharing economy, explores the central challenge of balancing innovation and regulatory concerns, and examines the institutions confronting these regulatory challenges, and the second part turns to a series of specific regulatory domains, including labor and employment law, consumer protection, tax, and civil rights. This groundbreaking work should be read by anyone interested in the dynamic relationship between law and the sharing economy.

This volume takes advantage of this opportunity by presenting a collection of empirical and conceptual work that explores the variety and the trajectories of new forms of organizing in the sharing economy, and in doing so builds on, rejuvenates, and refines existing organization theories.

Over the last fifty years in the United States, unions have been in deep decline, while income and wealth inequality have grown. In this timely work, editors Richard Bales and Charlotte Garden - with a roster of thirty-five leading labor scholars - analyze these trends and show how they are linked. Designed to appeal to those being introduced to the field as well as experts seeking new insights, this book demonstrates how federal labor law is failing today's workers and disempowering unions; how union jobs pay better than nonunion jobs and help to increase the wages of even nonunion workers; and how, when union jobs vanish, the wage premium also vanishes. At the same time, the book offers a range of solutions, from the radical, such as a complete overhaul of federal labor law, to the incremental, including reforms that could be undertaken by federal agencies on their own.

Providing a comprehensive overview of the urban sharing economy, this Modern Guide takes a forward-looking perspective on how sharing goods and services may facilitate future sustainability of consumption and production. It highlights recent developments and issues, with cutting-edge discussions from leading international scholars in business, engineering, environmental management, geography, law, planning, sociology and transport studies.

Controversy shrouds sharing economy platforms. It stems partially from the platforms’ economic impact, which is felt most acutely in certain sectors: Uber drivers compete with taxi drivers; Airbnb hosts compete with hotels. Other consequences lie elsewhere: Uber is associated with a trend toward low-paying, precarious work, whereas Airbnb is accused of exacerbating real estate speculation and raising the cost of long-term rental housing. While governments in some jurisdictions have attempted to rein in the platforms, technology has enabled such companies to bypass conventional regulatory categories, generating accusations of “unfair competition” as well as debates about the merits of existing regulatory regimes. Indeed, the platforms blur a number of familiar distinctions, including personal versus commercial activity; infrastructure versus content; contractual autonomy versus hierarchical control. These ambiguities can stymie legal regimes that rely on these distinctions as organizing principles, including those relating to labour, competition, tax, insurance, information, the prohibition of discrimination, as well as specialized sectoral regulation. This book is organized around five themes: technologies of regulation; regulating technology; the sites of regulation (local to global); regulating markets; and regulating labour. Together, the chapters offer a rich variety of insights on the regulation of the sharing economy, both in terms of the traditional areas of law they bring to bear, and the theoretical perspectives that inform their analysis. Published in English.

This book critically assesses how the rise of the collaborative economy in the European Union Digital Single Market is disrupting consolidated legal acquisitions, such as classical internal market categories, as well as the applicability of consumer protection, data protection, and labour and competition law. It argues that the collaborative economy will, sooner or later, require some sort of regulatory intervention from the European Union. This regulatory intervention, far from stifling innovation, will benefit online platforms, service providers and users by providing them with a clearer and more predictable environment in which to conduct their business. Although primarily intended for academics, this book also appeals to a wider readership, including, but not limited to, national and international regulators, private firms and lobbies as well as online platforms, consumer associations and trade unions.

The digital and increasingly digitised world is shaped by the interplay of new technological opportunities and ubiquitous societal trends. Both lead to drastic changes facing artificial intelligence (AI), cryptocurrencies and block-chain technologies, internet of things, technology-based surveillance, and other disruptive innovations. These developments facilitate the rise of the sharing economy and open for a variety of new entrepreneurial opportunities that businesses can take up. The novel entrepreneurial opportunities, however, imply a paradigmatic shift in the understanding of entrepreneurship. This book combines digital entrepreneurship with the sharing economy. It presents cutting-edge research for scholars and practitioners interested in either one of the topics – digital entrepreneurship or sharing economy – or their connection. The book addresses three major ways to become entrepreneurial in the sharing economy: digital entrepreneurship through creating novel sharing-economy platforms; technology entrepreneurship through the exploitation of sharing-economy platforms; and business model innovation or business model change influenced by the sharing economy. The book also highlights governance questions on digital entrepreneurship in the sharing economy, which are highly relevant for businesses, the economy, and society. The book will be of interested to researchers, academics, and students in the field of business and entrepreneurship, with a special focus on digital entrepreneurship.