Uncategorised Hits: 47

SECTION:

ECONOMIC RESEARCH

TITLE:

Informal Employment in the Digital Economy: Institutional Pitfalls and Social Risks

Natalya Yu. Kaufman, Svetlana Yu. Zelentsova

Размер файла 2.828 MB Размер файла Full text

RAR (Research Article Report)

JEL A13, B52, J21, O17

https://doi.org/10.52180/1999-9836_2026_22_3_3_392_408

AUTHORS

Natalya Yu. Kaufman

Surgut State University, Surgut, Russia

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7385-9276

SPIN-code: 4966-0185

ResearcherID: AAD-8367-2021

Svetlana Yu. Zelentsova

Surgut State University, Surgut, Russia

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6803-3082

SPIN-code: 1892-0167

ResearcherID: KIK-2693-2024

FOR CITATION

Kaufman N.Yu., Zelentsova S.Yu. Informal Employment in the Digital Economy: Institutional Pitfalls and Social Risks. Uroven' Zhizni Naseleniya Regionov Rossii=Living Standards of the Population in the Regions of Russia. 2026;22(3):392–408. https://doi.org/10.52180/1999-9836_2026_22_3_3_392_408 (In Russ.)

ABSTRACT

In the context of the ongoing changes, the relevance of the study is due to the rapid digitalization of the labour market, which generates new hybrid forms of employment, which are developing faster than the formation of an adequate regulatory framework, which creates the prerequisites for the expansion of informal employment in the digital environment, associated with large-scale social risks. The theoretical basis is neoinstitutional economic theory (D. North), the methodological framework includes institutional, systemic and evolutionary approaches, methods of classification, statistical and comparative analysis, matrix modeling. The empirical basis of the study was made up of data from Rosstat, the Federal Tax Service, expert estimates of fiscal losses, as well as the results of domestic and foreign studies. The aim of the study is to identify and analyze the key institutional traps that determine the sustainability of informal employment in the digital economy, and systematize the social risks generated by them. The study pursues four objectives: the concept of «informal employment in the digital economy» is develops a conceptual definition from the standpoint of institutional economic theory; systematized and classified institutional traps characteristic of the digital environment; social risks associated with identified traps are identified; guidelines for institutional change are formulated. The study identified four key institutional traps of informal employment in the digital economy: legal uncertainty, bogus self-employment, flexibility as coercion, and platform intermediation. Based on the analysis, a social risk matrix was developed and it was established that the cumulative effect of the identified traps generates systemic consequences at the individual (greater vulnerability), group (growing inequality, degradation of collective forms of protection and solidarity) and system-wide (fiscal losses) levels, consolidating the «digital precariat» layer. The practical significance of the study lies in the justification of the directions of institutional changes aimed at overcoming the identified pitfalls: differentiation of the legal status of employees, improving mechanisms for the reclassification of civil-law contracts as employment relationships, ensuring the transparency of digital mediation and support for new forms of collective protection. The prospects for further research are related to the empirical verification of the proposed mechanisms and the development of methods for assessing the effectiveness of institutional transformations in the field of the regulation of digital employment.

KEYWORDS

informal employment, digital economy, institutional traps, social risks, platform employment, digital precariat

INFORMATION ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Natalya Yu. Kaufman

PhD in Economics, Associate Professor, Surgut State University.

Svetlana Yu. Zelentsova

PhD in Economics, Associate Professor, Surgut State University.

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