When Uber moves into a city, local businesses that have nothing to do with cars suddenly start spending way more on being eco-friendly.
March 27, 2026
Original Paper
Gig Economy and Corporate Environmental Investments: Evidence from the Ride-hailing Platform
SSRN · 6471262
The Takeaway
Researchers found that the gig economy acts as a 'safety net' for workers in polluted environments. To prevent their best talent from quitting to drive for Uber, local firms are forced to improve working conditions and invest in pollution-reducing technology to retain their human capital.
From the abstract
This paper investigates the impact of the gig economy on corporate environmental investments. To better establish causality, we exploit the staggered surge of gig work opportunities induced by the entry of the ride-hailing platform Uber into different cities in China. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we find that the introduction of Uber significantly promotes corporate environmental investments, leading to lower local pollutant emissions. The effect is more pronounced for firms that