* by Erica Diniz Oliveira, chief economist at iFood, and Arthur Fisch, Public Policy coordinator at iFood
The New Economy is an important driver of development and transformation for the country. The changes brought about by the incorporation of more technology into production and service processes have a major impact on the Economy. To assess the real impact, research is needed. It is with this objective that We commissioned a study on the topic from the Economic Research Institute Foundation (Fipe).
The unprecedented study analyzed three important dimensions of the socioeconomic impacts of iFood's operations in Brazil. The first of these was the systemic impact of iFood on the Brazilian economy as a whole, with the aim of identifying the socioeconomic importance of the application and its value chain in Brazil. The second focused on scaling the impact of iFood for the restaurant sector. And finally, the third, aimed to analyze the delivery people and better understand the position of the iFood delivery person in relation to the job market Brazilian.
Data from the platform's operation in the country, official data from IBGE and the Ministry of Labor, and analyzes already produced by the Foundation's researchers were used. For the first analysis, the input-output methodology was used. This technique seeks to map the national economy as a series of interconnected sectors while isolating iFood's operations. With this, it is possible to estimate the initial, direct, indirect and induced effects on the value chain of iFood's activities in all sectors of the economy.
Briefly, in this first stage of the study, in which the economic effects of iFood for delivery drivers, restaurants and consumers were considered, it was identified that iFood activities were responsible for the generation and movement of approximately R$31.8 billion of GDP nationally in 2020. The research also identified that 730 thousand jobs were created in the same year.
This first stage of the research also confirmed that the delivery activity has several links, positively impacting a series of other sectors of the economy. As a result, it is estimated that for every R$1,000 spent on the iFood platform, another R$1,414 is generated in the Brazilian economy; for every 100 direct jobs created by iFood, another 60 are generated in other sectors; and for every R$100 collected in taxes through iFood's activities, another R$111 is collected in its chain (ICMS, IPI, ISS and others).
The sectors most impacted by iFood's operations are food, delivery people themselves, wholesale trade, livestock and agriculture, which shows that the effects of orders on the platform affect multiple sectors.
iFood partner delivery partners
The study also focused specifically on delivery partners on the iFood platform, with the aim of identifying the profile of these workers, their remuneration compared to other occupations and regional characteristics of the job market. The intention was to better understand how pay in the gig economy compares to traditional jobs.
The study is important to advance the understanding of the work of platforms and contribute to the formulation of policies for the sector.
The methodology adopted at this stage was econometric techniques based on public and company data to identify patterns related to delivery people.
A first important result is that, if we consider the period actually spent on deliveries, the average earnings per hour worked at iFood are equivalent to 165.5% of the hourly remuneration that these workers would have in relation to similar workers in traditional positions in the market of work.
The study also reveals that existing disparities in the traditional job market (gender and racial wage differences) disappear among iFood delivery partners. We find in the traditional labor market a significant gender and racial wage differential, with women and non-whites receiving an average wage lower than the earnings of men and white workers with equivalent observable characteristics. On the iFood platform, workers' remuneration does not have significant differences in relation to the gender and race of delivery people. This result suggests that the payment of delivery drivers on the platform is neutral in relation to characteristics usually subject to discrimination in the job market. This is an important result of the gig economy’s impact on social inequalities.
iFood partner restaurants
Regarding the analyzes that aimed to evaluate the possible effect of the delivery platform on restaurant activity, it was identified that restaurants that joined the platform had a higher average number of employees than those that never joined (11 versus 14) and that joining iFood also generated an increase in the average salary of employees. In other words, the volume of jobs in restaurants in the areas is greater the more intense the participation of iFood restaurants in them.
It was also observed that the presence of iFood partner restaurants in geographic areas is associated with a reduction in the speed of job loss in the sector as a whole in large city areas and with an additional gain in employment in medium and small cities. This is indicative of the positive impact that iFood has on the bar and restaurant sector.
It was also observed that the presence of iFood partner restaurants affects the appearance of new restaurants in the areas and that the volume of activations is positively influenced by the fraction of iFood restaurants already present in the region, so that the greater the presence of registered restaurants on the iFood platform in the areas, the higher the growth rate in the number of restaurant activations in the following 12 months. In other words, the results indicate a positive effect of the presence of iFood partner restaurants on accumulated activations in the subsequent 12 months, both on the volume of activations of new restaurants and on the growth rate of these activations.
Positive impacts
The study developed with FIPE was pioneering, as it was the first to use a robust methodology to estimate the economic impacts of a delivery platform with iFood on the Brazilian economy. The results indicate that the presence of platforms is positive for business and contributes to economic development. Given this scenario, even more research is needed. Digital intermediation platforms are something new and need to be analyzed based on facts and data. Only in this way will it be possible to build public policies that make sense.
