All of Scioteca
Communities & Collections By Issue Date Authors Titles Subjects Country / Region
Profiles
Our Authors
My Account
Login

Regulating Platform Work where Informality Matters: Evidence from Chile

Chile’s 2022 Platform Work Law mandates firms to monitor their subcontractors’ formality and establishes maximum working hours, minimum pay, and the right to collective bargaining among these independent contractors. Unlike other countries where informality matters, Chile further stands out for providing a comprehensive dataset for platform work that tracks workers’ labor market outcomes over 2020-2024. By means of DiD and event study designs, we find that this reform induced an 8-percentage-point shift from the share of informal to formal subcontractors without altering the share of employees. Yet, we find no significant changes in collective bargaining coverage, compliance with minimum pay and maximumhours, and wage differentials between employees and subcontractors. We argue that these changes in hiring practices are consistent with a structural labor market model where firms hire employees and both formal and informal subcontractors. The calibrated model also shows that the reform reduced platforms’ profits, while strictly enforcing hours regulations would lead to very small welfare losses.

Abstract

Description

Subject

Evaluación de impacto | Finanzas | Investigación socioeconómica | Productividad | Productividad

País / Región

Chile

URI

https://scioteca.caf.com/handle/123456789/2713

Date

2026-09-17

Cite from this publication

Collections

6.1 Documentos de trabajo en investigación socioeconómica

Endorsement

Review

Supplemented By

Referenced By

Creative Commons license

CC-BY-NC-ND
Except where otherwised noted, this item's license is described as CC-BY-NC-ND
Thumbnail Image

Files

Regulating Platform Work where Informality Matters_Evidence from Chile.pdf (1.92 MB)

Authors

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Related Items

Thumbnail Image
Urban Transit Infrastructure: Spatial Mismatch and Labor Market Power

Does transit infrastructure reduce labor market power? This paper estimates the effects of a large subway expansion on local labor market outcomes in Santiago, Chile....

Thumbnail Image
Autonomy: a regional challenge - building systems of support for community living for people with disabilities in Latin America an the Caribbean

The socio-economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects has underscored the centrality of support and care systems that enable people with disabilities...

Thumbnail Image
Automation and the Margins of Firm and Worker Adjustment in Argentina

We examine how automation reshapes firm labor demand and incumbent-worker trajectories in Argentina over 2007–2022. We link customs records on automation-capital imports to administrative employer–employee...

Thumbnail Image
Anual Report 2023

In the midst of a challenging panorama, CAF - development bank of Latin America and the Caribbean - continues to consolidate itself as the green...

Thumbnail Image
Going subnational: wage differentials across levels of government in Brazil, Mexico and Uruguay

Workers at subnational governments play a prominent role in the delivery of public services in most countries. Yet, information about their remuneration is scarce. Using...

Thumbnail Image
Gender Gaps in Labor Informality: The Motherhood Effect

We estimate the short- and long-run labor market impacts of parenthood in a developing country, Chile, based on an eventstudy approach around the birth of...