IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/crpeac/v75y2021ics1045235420300174.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

From unemployment to self-employment: Can enterprise policy intensify the risks of poverty?

Author

Listed:
  • Danson, Mike
  • Galloway, Laura
  • Sherif, Mohamed

Abstract

Analysis of the large rise in the numbers of self-employed in the UK reveals high levels of in-work poverty, especially among those coming off of social security benefits. Policies that are developed to alleviate social and economic risk regularly lead to behavioural responses to perceptions about the nature of such risk and to make individuals more accountable. Informed by accounting, finance and economic theories of risk, interviews with key informants who are experiencing self-employment and poverty, along with professionals from business and community development and poverty alleviation, are used to explore the support available to new entrepreneurs. Findings include that policy push from unemployment to self-employment shifts the social risks and responsibilities of employment from state and employers to those individuals with least capacity to bear them. Measures to mitigate resource disadvantage, including the New Enterprise Allowance Scheme, are found to be wanting and inadequate for the main client groups, and fail to reduce the social and economic risks faced in starting up a new business.

Suggested Citation

  • Danson, Mike & Galloway, Laura & Sherif, Mohamed, 2021. "From unemployment to self-employment: Can enterprise policy intensify the risks of poverty?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:crpeac:v:75:y:2021:i:c:s1045235420300174
    DOI: 10.1016/j.cpa.2020.102164
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1045235420300174
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.cpa.2020.102164?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ngo, Thi Minh-Phuong & Wahhaj, Zaki, 2012. "Microfinance and gender empowerment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 1-12.
    2. Peter Eckersley & Laurence Ferry, 2020. "Public service outsourcing: the implications of ‘known unknowns’ and ‘unknown unknowns’ for accountability and policy-making," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(1), pages 72-80, January.
    3. Matthieu Chemin, 2008. "The Benefits and Costs of Microfinance: Evidence from Bangladesh," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(4), pages 463-484, April.
    4. Dalla Via, Nicola & Perego, Paolo & van Rinsum, Marcel, 2019. "How accountability type influences information search processes and decision quality," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 79-91.
    5. Josephine Adekola & Denis Fischbacher-Smith & Moira Fischbacher-Smith, 2019. "Light me up: power and expertise in risk communication and policy-making in the e-cigarette health debates," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(10), pages 1294-1308, October.
    6. Robert Holzmann & Steen Jørgensen, 2001. "Social Risk Management: A New Conceptual Framework for Social Protection, and Beyond," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 8(4), pages 529-556, August.
    7. Robert Cull & Asli Demirgüç-Kunt & Jonathan Morduch, 2009. "Microfinance Meets the Market," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(1), pages 167-192, Winter.
    8. Berggren, Niclas & Bjørnskov, Christian, 2020. "Corruption, judicial accountability and inequality: Unfair procedures may benefit the worst-off," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 341-354.
    9. Paul Mosley & Robert Holzmann & Steen Jorgensen, 1999. "Social protection as social risk management: conceptual underpinnings for the social protection sector strategy paper," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(7), pages 1005-1027.
    10. Baud, Céline & Chiapello, Eve, 2017. "Understanding the disciplinary aspects of neoliberal regulations: The case of credit-risk regulation under the Basel Accords," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 3-23.
    11. Jeacle, Ingrid, 2016. "The diet of the nation: The state, family budgets and the 1930s nutritional crisis in Britain," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 54-68.
    12. Martin Messner, 2009. "The Limits of Accountability," Post-Print hal-00486747, HAL.
    13. Grimshaw, Damian., 2011. "What do we know about low wage work and low wage workers? : Analysing the definitions, patterns, causes and consequences in international perspective," ILO Working Papers 994648583402676, International Labour Organization.
    14. Harney, Stefano, 2010. "Accounting, risk, and revolution," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 14-17.
    15. Ajit Bhalla & Frédéric Lapeyre, 1997. "Social Exclusion: Towards an Analytical and Operational Framework," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 28(3), pages 413-433, July.
    16. Kean Birch & Geoff Whittam, 2008. "The Third Sector and the Regional Development of Social Capital," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(3), pages 437-450, April.
    17. Kraus, Kalle & Kennergren, Cecilia & von Unge, Amelie, 2017. "The interplay between ideological control and formal management control systems – A case study of a non-governmental organisation," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 42-59.
    18. Everett, Jeff & Friesen, Constance, 2010. "Humanitarian accountability and performance in the Théâtre de l’Absurde," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 468-485.
    19. Hanlon, Gerard, 2010. "Knowledge, risk and Beck: Misconceptions of expertise and risk," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 211-220.
    20. Neu, Dean & Rahaman, Abu Shiraz & Everett, Jeff & Akindayomi, Akinloye, 2010. "The sign value of accounting: IMF structural adjustment programs and African banking reform," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 21(5), pages 402-419.
    21. Walker, Stephen P., 2016. "Revisiting the roles of accounting in society," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 41-50.
    22. Robert Blackburn & Monder Ram, 2006. "Fix or fixation? The contributions and limitations of entrepreneurship and small firms to combating social exclusion," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 73-89, January.
    23. Gregor Dorfleitner & Michaela Leidl & Johannes Reeder, 2012. "Theory of social returns in portfolio choice with application to microfinance," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 13(6), pages 384-400, December.
    24. Martinez, Daniel E. & Cooper, David J., 2017. "Assembling international development: Accountability and the disarticulation of a social movement," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 6-20.
    25. Veland, H. & Aven, T., 2013. "Risk communication in the light of different risk perspectives," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 34-40.
    26. Graham, Cameron & Grisard, Claudine, 2019. "Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief: Accounting and the stigma of poverty," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 32-51.
    27. Dillard, Jesse & Vinnari, Eija, 2019. "Critical dialogical accountability: From accounting-based accountability to accountability-based accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 16-38.
    28. Thomas Prosser, 2016. "Dualization or liberalization? Investigating precarious work in eight European countries," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 30(6), pages 949-965, December.
    29. Kim, J.C. & Watts, C.H. & Hargreaves, J.R. & Ndhlovu, L.X. & Phetla, G. & Morison, L.A. & Busza, J. & Porter, J.D.H. & Pronyk, P., 2007. "Understanding the impact of a microfinance-based intervention on women's empowerment and the reduction of intimate partner violence in South Africa," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 97(10), pages 1794-1802.
    30. Barr, Nicholas, 2001. "The Welfare State as Piggy Bank: Information, Risk, Uncertainty, and the Role of the State," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199246595.
    31. Haggard, Stephan & Tiede, Lydia, 2011. "The Rule of Law and Economic Growth: Where are We?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 673-685, May.
    32. Pelzer, Peter, 2018. "Risk bearing capacity and the bearers of responsibility," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 48-56.
    33. Kazushi TAKAHASHI & Takayuki HIGASHIKATA & Kazunari TSUKADA, 2010. "The Short‐Term Poverty Impact Of Small‐Scale, Collateral‐Free Microcredit In Indonesia: A Matching Estimator Approach," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 48(1), pages 128-155, March.
    34. Rob Dixon & John Ritchie & Juliana Siwale, 2007. "Loan officers and loan ‘delinquency’ in Microfinance: A Zambian case," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(1), pages 47-71, March.
    35. Gloria Agyemang & Brendan O’Dwyer & Jeffrey Unerman & Mariama Awumbila, 2017. "Seeking “conversations for accountability”," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 30(5), pages 982-1007, June.
    36. Rob Dixon & John Ritchie & Juliana Siwale, 2006. "Microfinance: accountability from the grassroots," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 19(3), pages 405-427, April.
    37. Marguerite S. Robinson, 2001. "The Microfinance Revolution," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 28956.
    38. Christian Ahlin & RobertM. Townsend, 2007. "Using Repayment Data to Test Across Models of Joint Liability Lending," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(517), pages 11-51, February.
    39. Lisa Marini & Jane Andrew & Sandra van der Laan, 2018. "Accountability practices in microfinance: cultural translation and the role of intermediaries," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 31(7), pages 1904-1931, September.
    40. Alawattage, Chandana & Graham, Cameron & Wickramasinghe, Danture, 2019. "Microaccountability and biopolitics: Microfinance in a Sri Lankan village," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 38-60.
    41. Julian S. Frankish & Richard G. Roberts & Alex Coad & David J. Storey, 2014. "Is Entrepreneurship a Route Out of Deprivation?," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(6), pages 1090-1107, June.
    42. Kais Bouslah & Lawrence Kryzanowski & Bouchra M’Zali, 2018. "Social Performance and Firm Risk: Impact of the Financial Crisis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 149(3), pages 643-669, May.
    43. Jane Davison, 2007. "Photographs and accountability: cracking the codes of an NGO," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 20(1), pages 133-158, March.
    44. Messner, Martin, 2009. "The limits of accountability," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 918-938, November.
    45. Katarzyna Kosmala & John Francis McKernan, 2011. "From care of the self to care for the other: neglected aspects of Foucault's late work," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(3), pages 377-402, March.
    46. Andrew Henley, 2005. "Job Creation by the Self-employed: The Roles of Entrepreneurial and Financial Capital," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 175-196, September.
    47. Gerald Friedman, 2014. "Workers without employers: shadow corporations and the rise of the gig economy," Review of Keynesian Economics, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 2(2), pages 171-188, April.
    48. Jayasinghe, Kelum & Wickramasinghe, Danture, 2011. "Power over empowerment: Encountering development accounting in a Sri Lankan fishing village," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 396-414.
    49. repec:ilo:ilowps:464858 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Evelyn Agba Tackie & Hao Chen & Isaac Ahakwa & Samuel Atingabili & Kobina Abaka Ansah, 2022. "Investigating the Relationship Between Local Business and Employment Creation for Poverty Reduction in Northern Ghana: The Moderating Role of Local Economic Development (LED) Policy," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, June.

    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. Alawattage, Chandana & Graham, Cameron & Wickramasinghe, Danture, 2019. "Microaccountability and biopolitics: Microfinance in a Sri Lankan village," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 38-60.
    2. Ang, Soon Yong & Wickramasinghe, Danture, 2023. "Ethical disputes, coordinating acts and NGO accountability: Evidence from an NGO river-care programme in Malaysia," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    3. Yasmin, Sofia & Ghafran, Chaudhry, 2019. "The problematics of accountability: Internal responses to external pressures in exposed organisations," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    4. Boomsma, Roel & O'Dwyer, Brendan, 2019. "Constituting the governable NGO: The correlation between conduct and counter-conduct in the evolution of funder-NGO accountability relations," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 1-20.
    5. Tanima, Farzana Aman & Brown, Judy & Wright, Jan & Mackie, Vera, 2023. "Taking critical dialogic accountability into the field: Engaging contestation around microfinance and women’s empowerment," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    6. Frey-Heger, Corinna & Barrett, Michael, 2021. "Possibilities and limits of social accountability: The consequences of visibility as recognition and exposure in refugee crises," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    7. O’Leary, Susan, 2017. "Grassroots accountability promises in rights-based approaches to development: The role of transformative monitoring and evaluation in NGOs," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 21-41.
    8. Hopper, Trevor & Lassou, Philippe & Soobaroyen, Teerooven, 2017. "Globalisation, accounting and developing countries," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 125-148.
    9. Tanima, Farzana Aman & Brown, Judy & Dillard, Jesse, 2020. "Surfacing the political: Women’s empowerment, microfinance, critical dialogic accounting and accountability," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    10. Ahmed, Zahir Uddin & Hopper, Trevor & Wickramasinghe, Danture, 2023. "From Minnow to Mighty: A hegemonic analysis of social accountability in BRAC - the world’s largest development NGO," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    11. Diab, Ahmed A., 2021. "The appearance of community logics in management accounting and control: Evidence from an Egyptian sugar beet village," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    12. Saravanamuthu, Kala & Lehman, Cheryl, 2013. "Enhancing stakeholder interaction through environmental risk accounts," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 410-437.
    13. Simon Zaby, 2019. "Science Mapping of the Global Knowledge Base on Microfinance: Influential Authors and Documents, 1989–2019," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-21, July.
    14. Gutiérrez-Nieto, Begoña & Serrano-Cinca, Carlos, 2019. "20 years of research in microfinance: An information management approach," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 183-197.
    15. Graham, Cameron & Grisard, Claudine, 2019. "Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief: Accounting and the stigma of poverty," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 32-51.
    16. Neu, Dean, 2023. "Fragile assets: Street gangs and the extortion business," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    17. Crvelin, David & Becker, Albrecht, 2020. "‘The spirits that we summoned’: A study on how the ‘governed’ make accounting their own in the context of market-making programs in Nepal," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    18. Emilios Galariotis & Christophe Villa & Nurmukhammad Yusupov, 2011. "Recent Advances in Lending to the Poor with Asymmetric Information," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(9), pages 1371-1390, July.
    19. Hall, Matthew & O'Dwyer, Brendan, 2017. "Accounting, non-governmental organizations and civil society: The importance of nonprofit organizations to understanding accounting, organizations and society," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1-5.
    20. Sun, Sunny Li & Liang, Hao, 2021. "Globalization and affordability of microfinance," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(1).

    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:eee:crpeac:v:75:y:2021:i:c:s1045235420300174. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/critical-perspectives-on-accounting/ .

    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.