Centre for Business Research Platform Work Index (CBR-PWI) 2025

In this Sourcebook we report the contents of an index and related dataset which benchmark legal developments relating to platform work, the Centre for Business Research Platform Work Index (‘CBR-PWI’). The CBR-PWI tracks statutory initiatives and decisions of courts on the legal definition and regulation of platform work in 95 countries over the decade between 2016 and 2025. To build the CBR-PWI we use the method of index construction set out by the OECD and EU in their joint publication, the Handbook on Constructing Composite Indicators (2008), which was previously used to construct a related 'leximetric' index, the Centre for Business Research Labour Regulation Index (CBR-LRI). This methodology entails defining a statistical ‘construct’ to express the underlying reality or phenomenon which the index measures. The phenomenon we are seeking to measure is the extent to which platform workers come within the scope of labour and social security laws in different countries. To do this, we devise a coding scheme or ‘template’ which captures the differences between countries’ laws and scales them in a consistent way. The coding is done by consulting relevant laws and judgments and secondary sources. Relevant secondary sources included country reports prepared by the Fair Work Project and the European Training Foundation. The template is then mapped on to these materials in order to arrive a score for each country in the index. Laws are coded for each year in the decade between 2016 and 2025, so creating a continuous time series. The construction of the index takes the text of statutes and decisions of courts as primary data. The analysis is carried out by lawyers with expertise in the areas of labour and social security law (the authors of the index). The same team devised the template and carried out the country-by-country coding. After an initial review of the laws of the country concerned, scores were assigned to the indicators contained in the template by one of the team members, and then reviewed by one of the others. Once preliminary codings had been arrived at, all scores were jointly reviewed to ensure that the coding template was being consistently applied. The result of the coding process is a measure of the content of legal rules on the employment status of platform workers.