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Female self-employment and children

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  • Florian Noseleit

Abstract

Several analyses report a positive correlation between fertility and female self-employment; however, scholars disagree about the direction of this relationship. Knowing about the causal relationship is important because the relevant mechanisms and possible implications differ tremendously. This paper studies two competing hypotheses: Is self-employment more attractive to women because they have children? Or, is it occupation-specific characteristics of self-employed women that impact their fertility? This work applies a unique approach by utilizing exogenous variation in both children and self-employment. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Florian Noseleit, 2014. "Female self-employment and children," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 549-569, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:43:y:2014:i:3:p:549-569
    DOI: 10.1007/s11187-014-9570-8
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Self-employment; Causality; Gender; Female entrepreneurship; Children; L26; M13; J13;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • M13 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - New Firms; Startups
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

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