Managing self-employment, new forms of work, and the platform economy

After providing an overview of trends in self-employment, own-account and platform work, this chapter provides a comprehensive policy discussion of how to address the challenges of some of these “new” forms of work – covering labour market regulation, social protection, tax, social dialogue and skills. The objective of policy makers should be to balance innovation, entrepreneurship and flexibility, on the one hand, with job quality and worker rights and protections, on the other. The latter is important not only from a worker perspective, but also to ensure a level playing field between competing firms.