Lyubov Filin, Head of Evidence-Based Regulatory Practice Department at the Gaidar Institute,explained the regional differences in the development of platform employment in Russia in a commentary for Nezavisimaya Gazeta.
Despite the authorities' efforts to regulate the digital economy, platform employment remains a rare phenomenon for most regions of the country and even in the most prosperous regions of the Russian Federation, it does not catch up with the scale of the informal labor market. The expert noted that this type of employment is concentrated in the most economically developed regions, such as Moscow, the Moscow Region, Krasnodar Krai, and Tatarstan. “These megacities have all the conditions for the growth of the platform economy: high demand for services (taxis, food and goods delivery, etc.) and sufficient supply from workers,” explained Lyubov Filin.
According to her, it is the combination of demand and the willingness of workers to work through digital platforms that determines the success of this sector. “Therefore, platform employment in these regions is developing not as part of the shadow market, but as an independent sector providing flexible employment,” concluded Lyubov Filin.