Replication Data for: The Gig Economy in Party Manifestos: Analysing the Salience of a New Issue Across Europe

The gig economy, characterised by a hire-and-fire practice and bogus self-employment, is a fairly recent phenomenon in Europe. Even though it is growing rapidly, gig work still accounts for only a small share of employment. Considering the issue’s newness and societal relevance, it is interesting to ask why parties develop a policy position on this issue. In this paper, I analyse (1) whether the entire party spectrum addresses the gig economy; and (2) whether and which party- or country-level factors influence the probability of addressing the issue. Using 188 manifestos from parliamentary elections between 2018 and 2022 in 23 European countries, I employ a keyword-in-context analysis to study the issue’s salience. Additionally, multilevel models are estimated to analyse the influencing factors. The findings show that the gig economy is discussed in roughly 30% of manifestos with considerable between-country differences and that left-wing parties are more likely to address the issue.