Sharing economy here to stay, SFU prof says
But government regulation is sorely lacking, he adds
Governments, including the province and Metro Vancouver, need to become more proactive in regulating the so-called sharing economy to realize its co-operative benefits while heading off potential pitfalls, according to new research that involves local academics.
“I think there is no stopping the sharing economy, or the gig economy, it’s here to stay,” said Andy Hira, a political-science professor at Simon Fraser University.
“What I would like to see is more sensible regulations, and licensing of these services.”
Municipalities such as Vancouver and Richmond are struggling with how to keep Airbnb private vacation rentals from cutting into important rental housing through regulations, and the province is attempting to write rules to allow for ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft. However, Hira believes B.C. authorities are still in unmapped territory when it comes to creating rules for sharing that are fair to existing businesses in their respective fields while offering consumer protection and employment rights.
Hira co-authored a paper for academic publication Journal of Developing Societies with fellow SFU academic Katherine Reilly, which examined the potential for sharing economy applications to help individuals in developing economies overcome barriers to getting into business.
That research has broader implications, Hira said, including in Canada, where multibilliondollar giants such as Airbnb and Uber dominate public discussion. On the upside, Hira said software based sharing applications offer individuals who don’t have a lot of money to invest in a business a chance to pool resources with a group of people to buy an asset — such as a car for ride hailing — to start a business. And he sees a role for governments in promoting or assisting in the creation of a framework to make such co-operative aspects of sharing easier.
On the downside, Hira said new, well-capitalized disrupters such as Airbnb or Uber can break into markets with an unfair advantage over traditional competitors bound by stricter regulations. There is also the possibility of for-profit sharing companies such as Uber increasing the fragmentation of the labour market through the practice of signing on service providers as contractors rather than hiring them as employees.
“The sharing economy is here to stay,” Hira said. “The municipalities that choose to ignore it are ignoring the inevitable.”