Literature survey on the economic impact of digital platforms
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Literature survey on the economic impact of digital platforms Soichiro Takagi1 Received: 2 December 2019 / Accepted: 7 July 2020 © Japan Economic Policy Association (JEPA) 2020
Abstract The rapid diffusion of digital platforms is generating a deep impact on a wide range of economic aspects such as consumption, communication, and workstyle. On the other hand, there is a growing concern over the consequences of the rapid diffusion of digital platforms such as those on monopoly, destruction of traditional industry, and the effect on workstyle and jobs. As a result, government authorities are rapidly considering political measures to regulate digital platforms. However, it is still not clear how the diffusion of digital platforms impacts the economy from a scientific perspective. This study conducts a literature survey aimed at answering the question, “How much do we know about the economic impact of digital platforms?”. This research provides the definition of digital platforms and analyzes previous studies on the economic impact of digital platforms based on five pillars: labor, incubation, consumption, destruction, and wealth distribution. The results suggest that there is a relatively rich accumulation of studies on labor issues, mostly on the European market, while scientific research on the economic impact of digital platforms is sig‑ nificantly scarce. This study also discusses future research opportunities on the eco‑ nomic impact of digital platforms. Keywords Digital Platform · Impact · Sharing economy · Literature survey · Digital service tax JEL Classifications O30 · L10 · L50
Introduction The rapid diffusion of digital platforms is exerting a deep impact on a wide range of aspects of the economy such as consumption, communication, and workstyle. For example, consumers can buy books, home appliances, and movies via Amazon, * Soichiro Takagi [email protected]‑tokyo.ac.jp 1
Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
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Vol.:(0123456789)
International Journal of Economic Policy Studies
one of the largest online commerce platforms. People communicate via social media platforms such as Facebook, which also mediates users and advertisers. Moreover, crowdsourcing platforms enable people to work as individual contractors with other organizations or individuals. In addition, sharing economy platforms such as Airbnb and Uber enable people to utilize scarce resources of consumers using coordina‑ tion functions of those platforms. These examples demonstrate that digital platforms exert a deep impact on the fundamental functions of the economy such as how we buy, sell, and work in the society. On the other hand, there is a growing concern among public authorities over the consequences of the rapid diffusion of digital platforms. Given the strong network externality of the digital platforms, many of them are becoming dominant in the market and causing the concern on monopoly. The market domination of Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon—all US-based platform comp
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