IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jecsur/v13y1999i4p381-416.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Empirical Studies of Self‐Employment

Author

Listed:
  • Anh T. Le

Abstract

This paper presents a review of empirical studies of self‐employment for the Australian, Canadian, Dutch, UK and US labour markets. Both cross‐sectional and longitudinal studies are analysed. Analyses using cross‐sectional data examine the propensity to be self‐employed at any one point in time, whereas longitudinal studies focus on the transition into self‐employment from wage/salary employment and the survival rate in this state over time. Various hypotheses advanced in the economics and sociology literatures on self‐employment are tested. These include the relationship between managerial ability and the propensity to be self‐employed and the impact of financial constraints on entry into self‐employment stressed in economic models of entrepreneurship, and the relationships between self‐employment choice and the nature of the work and group characteristics (e.g., ethnic enclaves) stressed in sociological models of entrepreneurship. The evidence shows that self‐employment outcomes are significantly affected by factors such as individual abilities, family background, occupational status, liquidity constraints and ethnic enclaves.

Suggested Citation

  • Anh T. Le, 1999. "Empirical Studies of Self‐Employment," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(4), pages 381-416, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jecsur:v:13:y:1999:i:4:p:381-416
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-6419.00088
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6419.00088
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1467-6419.00088?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Willis, Robert J & Rosen, Sherwin, 1979. "Education and Self-Selection," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(5), pages 7-36, October.
    2. De Wit, Gerrit & Van Winden, Frans A. A. M., 1990. "An empirical analysis of self-employment in the Netherlands," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 97-100, January.
    3. Blanchflower, D. & Oswald, A., 1990. "What Makes A Young Entrepreneur?," Papers 373, London School of Economics - Centre for Labour Economics.
    4. Blau, David M, 1987. "A Time-Series Analysis of Self-employment in the United State," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(3), pages 445-467, June.
    5. Evans, David S & Jovanovic, Boyan, 1989. "An Estimated Model of Entrepreneurial Choice under Liquidity Constraints," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(4), pages 808-827, August.
    6. Alan S. Blinder, 1976. "On Dogmatism in Human Capital Theory," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 11(1), pages 8-22.
    7. Chiswick, Barry R, 1978. "The Effect of Americanization on the Earnings of Foreign-born Men," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(5), pages 897-921, October.
    8. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    9. Kidd, Michael P, 1993. "Immigrant Wage Differentials and the Role of Self-Employment in Australia," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(60), pages 92-115, June.
    10. Robert E. Lucas Jr., 1978. "On the Size Distribution of Business Firms," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 9(2), pages 508-523, Autumn.
    11. George J. Borjas, 1986. "The Self-Employment Experience of Immigrants," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 21(4), pages 485-506.
    12. Borjas, George J & Bronars, Stephen G, 1989. "Consumer Discrimination and Self-employment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(3), pages 581-605, June.
    13. D Smeaton, 1992. "Self-Employment: Some Preliminary Findings," CEP Discussion Papers dp0096, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    14. Jovanovic, Boyan, 1982. "Selection and the Evolution of Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(3), pages 649-670, May.
    15. Rees, Hedley & Shah, Anup, 1986. "An Empirical Analysis of Self-employment in the U.K," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 1(1), pages 95-108, January.
    16. Bates, Timothy, 1990. "Entrepreneur Human Capital Inputs and Small Business Longevity," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 72(4), pages 551-559, November.
    17. Guillermo A. Calvo & Stanislaw Wellisz, 1980. "Technology, Entrepreneurs, and Firm Size," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 95(4), pages 663-677.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fairlie, Robert W, 1999. "The Absence of the African-American Owned Business: An Analysis of the Dynamics of Self-Employment," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(1), pages 80-108, January.
    2. Nadia Simoes & Nuno Crespo & Sandrina B. Moreira, 2016. "Individual Determinants Of Self-Employment Entry: What Do We Really Know?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 783-806, September.
    3. Robert W. Fairlie & Alicia M. Robb, 2008. "Race and Entrepreneurial Success: Black-, Asian-, and White-Owned Businesses in the United States," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 026206281x, April.
    4. Y. Wu, 1998. "Redundancy and Firm Characteristics in Chinese State-owned Enterprises," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 98-17, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    5. Y Georgellis & J G Sessions & N Tsitsianis, 2005. "Self-Employment Longitudinal Dynamics: A Review of the Literature," Economic Issues Journal Articles, Economic Issues, vol. 10(2), pages 51-84, September.
    6. Robert W. Fairlie & Bruce D. Meyer, "undated". "Trends in Self-Employment Among White and Black Men: 1910 - 1990," IPR working papers 99-1, Institute for Policy Resarch at Northwestern University.
    7. Guillaume Destré & Valentine Henrard, 2004. "The determinants of occupational choice in Colombia: an empirical analysis," Cahiers de la Maison des Sciences Economiques bla04065a, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1).
    8. Isabel Grilo & Roy Thurik, 2008. "Determinants of entrepreneurial engagement levels in Europe and the US," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 17(6), pages 1113-1145, December.
    9. Sarah Brown & Lisa Farrell & Mark N. Harris & John G. Sessions, 2006. "Risk preference and employment contract type," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 169(4), pages 849-863, October.
    10. Peter van der Zwan & Ingrid Verheul & Roy Thurik & Isabel Grilo, 2009. "Entrepreneurial Progress: Climbing the Entrepreneurial Ladder in Europe and the US," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 09-070/3, Tinbergen Institute, revised 17 Mar 2010.
    11. repec:cii:cepiei:2014-q2-138-2 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. A.T. Le, 1998. "Self Employment and Earnings Among Immigrants in Australia," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 98-28, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    13. José María Millán & Emilio Congregado & Concepción Román, 2010. "Determinants of Self-Employment Dynamics and their Implications on Entrepreneurial Policy Effectiveness," Lecturas de Economía, Universidad de Antioquia, Departamento de Economía, issue 72, pages 45-76.
    14. Jose Plehn-Dujowich, 2010. "A theory of serial entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 35(4), pages 377-398, November.
    15. Justin Van Der Sluis & Mirjam Van Praag & Wim Vijverberg, 2008. "Education And Entrepreneurship Selection And Performance: A Review Of The Empirical Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(5), pages 795-841, December.
    16. Earle, John S. & Sakova, Zuzana, 1999. "Entrepreneurship from Scratch: Lessons on the Entry Decision into Self-Employment from Transition Economies," IZA Discussion Papers 79, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Robert W. Fairlie, 2002. "Drug Dealing and Legitimate Self-Employment," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 20(3), pages 538-567, July.
    18. Joanna Woronkowicz & Douglas S. Noonan, 2019. "Who Goes Freelance? The Determinants of Self-Employment for Artists," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(4), pages 651-672, July.
    19. Williams, Darrell L., 1999. "Why do entrepreneurs become franchisees? an empirical analysis of organizational choice," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 103-124, January.
    20. Robert W. Fairlie & Bruce D. Meyer, 1994. "The Ethnic and Racial Character of Self-Employment," NBER Working Papers 4791, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Blanchflower, David G., 2000. "Self-employment in OECD countries," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(5), pages 471-505, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jecsur:v:13:y:1999:i:4:p:381-416. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0950-0804 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.