Do free writers produce more after being contracted and why? Evidence from online writing platforms in China

This paper studies the labor process in the platform economy. Specifically, we take the authors of the online literature platform as the research subject and present their production process. We find that, under the crowdsourcing production system, the platform enables writers to increase their output through the contract and listing systems. We verify the above conclusions and extend discussions based on difference-in- difference analysis and relevant tests, which includes dynamic results, a comparison with a simple fixed-effect model, and seasonal group regression.