IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/han/dpaper/dp-486.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Effect of Relative Standing on Considerations About Self-Employment

Author

Listed:
  • Schneck, Stefan

Abstract

This paper uses unique German data to examine the effects of the relative standing on the individual propensity to become self-employed in the next two years. The results suggest that the relationship between relative wage positions and propensity to become self-employed is U-shaped. This is interpreted as evidence that low status translates into entrepreneurial motivation for workers in low relative wage positions. Employees with high relative standing, in turn, seem to be more concerned about the lack of future career prospects in paid employment and consider self-employment as a next step on the individual career ladder.

Suggested Citation

  • Schneck, Stefan, 2011. "The Effect of Relative Standing on Considerations About Self-Employment," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-486, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
  • Handle: RePEc:han:dpaper:dp-486
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://diskussionspapiere.wiwi.uni-hannover.de/pdf_bib/dp-486.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brown, Gordon D. A. & Gardner, Jonathan & Oswald, Andrew J. & Qian, Jing, 2005. "Does Wage Rank Affect Employees' Wellbeing?," IZA Discussion Papers 1505, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. AndrewE. Clark & Claudia Senik, 2010. "Who Compares to Whom? The Anatomy of Income Comparisons in Europe," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(544), pages 573-594, May.
    3. AndrewE. Clark & Nicolai Kristensen & Niels Westergård-Nielsen, 2009. "Job Satisfaction and Co-worker Wages: Status or Signal?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(536), pages 430-447, March.
    4. Hirschman, Albert O., 1973. "The changing tolerance for income inequality in the course of economic development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 1(12), pages 29-36, December.
    5. Clark, Andrew E. & Oswald, Andrew J., 1996. "Satisfaction and comparison income," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(3), pages 359-381, September.
    6. Matthias Benz & Bruno S. Frey, 2008. "Being Independent is a Great Thing: Subjective Evaluations of Self‐Employment and Hierarchy," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 75(298), pages 362-383, May.
    7. David Card & Alexandre Mas & Enrico Moretti & Emmanuel Saez, 2012. "Inequality at Work: The Effect of Peer Salaries on Job Satisfaction," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(6), pages 2981-3003, October.
    8. Andrew E. Clark & Paul Frijters & Michael A. Shields, 2008. "Relative Income, Happiness, and Utility: An Explanation for the Easterlin Paradox and Other Puzzles," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 46(1), pages 95-144, March.
    9. Christian Pfeifer, 2010. "Impact of wages and job levels on worker absenteeism," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 31(1), pages 59-72, March.
    10. Amit, Raphael & Muller, Eitan & Cockburn, Iain, 1995. "Opportunity costs and entrepreneurial activity," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 95-106, March.
    11. repec:hal:pseose:halshs-00754447 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Gert G. Wagner & Joachim R. Frick & Jürgen Schupp, 2007. "The German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) – Scope, Evolution and Enhancements," Schmollers Jahrbuch : Journal of Applied Social Science Studies / Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 127(1), pages 139-169.
    13. Barton H. Hamilton, 2000. "Does Entrepreneurship Pay? An Empirical Analysis of the Returns to Self-Employment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(3), pages 604-631, June.
    14. Guy Mayraz & Jürgen Schupp & Gert G. Wagner, 2009. "Life Satisfaction and Relative Income: Perceptions and Evidence," CEP Discussion Papers dp0938, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    15. Freeman, Richard B, 1978. "Job Satisfaction as an Economic Variable," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 68(2), pages 135-141, May.
    16. Albert O. Hirschman & Michael Rothschild, 1973. "The Changing Tolerance for Income Inequality in the Course of Economic DevelopmentWith A Mathematical Appendix," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 87(4), pages 544-566.
    17. Manoj Atolia & Kislaya Prasad, 2011. "Relative Wealth Concerns and Entrepreneurship," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 78(310), pages 294-316, April.
    18. Christian Pfeifer & Stefan Schneck, 2010. "Relative Wage Positions and Quit Behavior: New Evidence from Linked Employer-Employee Data," Working Paper Series in Economics 163, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.
    19. Boden, Richard Jr., 1996. "Gender and self-employment selection: An empirical assessment," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 671-682.
    20. repec:bla:econom:v:42:y:1975:i:168:p:420-29 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Davidsson, Per, 2006. "Nascent Entrepreneurship: Empirical Studies and Developments," Foundations and Trends(R) in Entrepreneurship, now publishers, vol. 2(1), pages 1-76, June.
    22. Easterlin, Richard A., 1995. "Will raising the incomes of all increase the happiness of all?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 35-47, June.
    23. Christian Pfeifer & Stefan Schneck, 2012. "Relative Wage Positions and Quit Behavior: Evidence from Linked Employer-Employee Data," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 65(1), pages 126-147, January.
    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. Mathias Kloss & Thomas Kirschstein & Steffen Liebscher & Martin Petrick, 2019. "Robust Productivity Analysis: An application to German FADN data," Papers 1902.00678, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2019.
    2. Arndt Werner & Johanna Gast & Sascha Kraus, 2014. "The effect of working time preferences and fair wage perceptions on entrepreneurial intentions among employees," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 137-160, 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. Diriwaechter, Patric & Shvartsman, Elena, 2018. "The anticipation and adaptation effects of intra- and interpersonal wage changes on job satisfaction," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 116-140.
    2. Schneck, Stefan, 2014. "My Wage is Unfair! Just a Feeling or Comparison with Peers?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 1(3), pages 245-273.
    3. Yamada, Katsunori & Sato, Masayuki, 2013. "Another avenue for anatomy of income comparisons: Evidence from hypothetical choice experiments," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 35-57.
    4. Brodeur, Abel & Flèche, Sarah, 2013. "Where the Streets Have a Name: Income Comparisons in the US," IZA Discussion Papers 7256, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Abel Brodeur & Sarah Flèche, 2019. "Neighbors' Income, Public Goods, and Well‐Being," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 65(2), pages 217-238, June.
    6. Fontaine, Xavier & Yamada, Katsunori, 2014. "Caste Comparisons in India: Evidence From Subjective Well-Being Data," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 407-419.
    7. Christian Pfeifer & Stefan Schneck, 2012. "Relative Wage Positions and Quit Behavior: Evidence from Linked Employer-Employee Data," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 65(1), pages 126-147, January.
    8. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/3ile1g7sqe8kfpi2d1e7jp82im is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Mohrenweiser, Jens & Pfeifer, Christian, 2019. "Firms' Wage Structures, Workers' Fairness Perceptions, Job Satisfaction and Turnover Intentions: Evidence from Linked Employer-Employee Data," IZA Discussion Papers 12821, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Stavros A. Drakopoulos, 2020. "Pay Level Comparisons in Job Satisfaction Research and Mainstream Economic Methodology," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 825-842, March.
    11. Mohsen Javdani & Brian Krauth, 2020. "Job satisfaction and co‐worker pay in Canadian firms," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(1), pages 212-248, February.
    12. Montizaan, Raymond M. & Vendrik, Maarten C.M., 2014. "Misery Loves Company: Exogenous shocks in retirement expectations and social comparison effects on subjective well-being," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 1-26.
    13. Felix R. FitzRoy & Michael A. Nolan & Max F. Steinhardt & David Ulph, 2011. "So Far so Good: Age, Happiness, and Relative Income," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 415, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    14. Sun Youn Lee & Fumio Ohtake, 2021. "How Conscious Are You of Others? Further Evidence on Relative Income and Happiness," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(8), pages 3321-3356, December.
    15. Godechot, Olivier & Senik, Claudia, 2015. "Wage comparisons in and out of the firm. Evidence from a matched employer–employee French database," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 395-410.
    16. Olivier Godechot & Claudia Senik, 2015. "Wage comparisons in and out of the firm," SciencePo Working papers Main halshs-01314331, HAL.
    17. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/3ile1g7sqe8kfpi2d1e7jp82im is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Clark, Andrew E. & D'Ambrosio, Conchita, 2014. "Attitudes to Income Inequality: Experimental and Survey Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 8136, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Arndt Werner & Johanna Gast & Sascha Kraus, 2014. "The effect of working time preferences and fair wage perceptions on entrepreneurial intentions among employees," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 137-160, June.
    20. Felix FitzRoy & Michael Nolan & Max Steinhardt & David Ulph, 2014. "Testing the tunnel effect: comparison, age and happiness in UK and German panels," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-30, December.
    21. Grund, Christian & Martin, Johannes, 2012. "Monetary Reference Points of Managers: An Empirical Investigation of Status Quo Preferences and Social Comparisons," IZA Discussion Papers 7097, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    22. repec:hal:pseose:halshs-01314331 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. AndrewE. Clark & Claudia Senik, 2010. "Who Compares to Whom? The Anatomy of Income Comparisons in Europe," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(544), pages 573-594, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Relative wage position; status; self-employment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • L29 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Other

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:han:dpaper:dp-486. 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: Heidrich, Christian (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fwhande.html .

    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.