Platform Work in Developing Economies: Can Digitalisation Drive Structural Transformation?

This paper is concerned with the expansion or penetration of digital economic activity in developing country contexts, and what this may mean for economic or structural transformations for countries in the Global South. We ask what possibilities new jobs and forms of work in the digital economy—and in particular platform work—hold for the productive transformation of developing economies in ways that contribute to achieving the goals of human, inclusive, and sustainable development. What are the impacts on work and workers in this process? The question of whether a ‘digital transformation’ can spur development, and if so how, and to whose benefit, depends in large part on the nature of employment created and on whether labour can move to higher productivity sectors, raising incomes while strengthening state capacity to finance public goods and services, including social protection.