IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp11305.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Effect of Self-Employment on Health: Evidence from Longitudinal Social Security Data

Author

Listed:
  • Goncalves, Judite

    (Universidade Nova de Lisboa)

  • Martins, Pedro S.

    (Universidade Nova de Lisboa)

Abstract

The growth of novel flexible work formats raises a number of questions about their effects upon health and the potential required changes in public policy. However, answering these questions is hampered by lack of suitable data. This is the first paper that draws on comprehensive longitudinal administrative data to examine the impact of self-employment in terms of health. It also considers an objective measure of health – hospital admissions – that is not subject to recall or other biases that may affect previous studies. Our findings, based on a representative sample of over 100,000 individuals followed monthly from 2005 to 2011 in Portugal, indicate that the likelihood of hospital admission of self-employed individuals is about half that of wage workers. This finding holds even when accounting for a potential self-selection of the healthy into self-employment. Similar results are found for mortality rates.

Suggested Citation

  • Goncalves, Judite & Martins, Pedro S., 2018. "The Effect of Self-Employment on Health: Evidence from Longitudinal Social Security Data," IZA Discussion Papers 11305, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11305
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp11305.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cornelius A. Rietveld & Hans van Kippersluis & A. Roy Thurik, 2015. "Self‐Employment and Health: Barriers or Benefits?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(10), pages 1302-1313, October.
    2. Andrea Ichino & Regina T. Riphahn, 2005. "The Effect of Employment Protection on Worker Effort: Absenteeism During and After Probation," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 3(1), pages 120-143, March.
    3. Anne Case & Christina Paxson, 2010. "Causes and consequences of early-life health," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 47(1), pages 65-85, March.
    4. Zissimopoulos, Julie M. & Karoly, Lynn A., 2007. "Transitions to self-employment at older ages: The role of wealth, health, health insurance and other factors," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 269-295, April.
    5. repec:pri:cheawb:case_and_paxson_early_life_health_w15637.pdf is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Hessels, Jolanda & Rietveld, Cornelius A. & van der Zwan, Peter, 2017. "Self-employment and work-related stress: The mediating role of job control and job demand," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 178-196.
    7. Pedro S. Martins, 2015. "Working to get fired? Regression discontinuity effects of unemployment benefit eligibility on prior employment duration," Working Papers 61, Queen Mary, University of London, School of Business and Management, Centre for Globalisation Research.
    8. Roy Thurik, 2014. "Entrepreneurship and the business cycle," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 1-90, October.
    9. Elena Cottini & Paolo Ghinetti, 2018. "Employment insecurity and employees' health in Denmark," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(2), pages 426-439, February.
    10. Case, Anne & Fertig, Angela & Paxson, Christina, 2005. "The lasting impact of childhood health and circumstance," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 365-389, March.
    11. Riphahn, Regina T., 2004. "Employment protection and effort among German employees," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 85(3), pages 353-357, December.
    12. repec:pri:cheawb:case_and_paxson_early_life_health_w15637 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. repec:pri:rpdevs:case_and_paxson_early_life_health_w15637 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. Bellmann, Lutz & Hübler, Olaf, 2019. "Personal Attitudes, Job Characteristics and Health," IZA Discussion Papers 12597, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Pedro S. Martins, 2021. "30,000 Minimum Wages: The Economic Effects of Collective Bargaining Extensions," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 59(2), pages 335-369, June.
    3. Olivier Torrès & Roy Thurik, 2019. "Small business owners and health," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 53(2), pages 311-321, August.
    4. Wanting Huang & Lei He & Hongxing Lan, 2022. "The Impact of Self-Employment on the Health of Migrant Workers: Evidence from China Migrants Dynamic Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-19, May.
    5. Sarah Nurain Mohd Noh & Suhana Jawahir & Yeung R’ong Tan & Iqbal Ab Rahim & Ee Hong Tan, 2022. "The Health-Seeking Behavior among Malaysian Adults in Urban and Rural Areas Who Reported Sickness: Findings from the National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2019," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-17, March.
    6. Gerrie‐Cor Herber & Maarten Schipper & Marc Koopmanschap & Karin Proper & Fons van der Lucht & Hendriek Boshuizen & Johan Polder & Ellen Uiters, 2020. "Health expenditure of employees versus self‐employed individuals; a 5 year study," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(12), pages 1606-1619, December.
    7. Lutz Bellmann & Olaf Hübler, 2022. "Personality traits, working conditions and health: an empirical analysis based on the German Linked Personnel Panel, 2013–2017," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 283-318, February.

    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. Gonçalves, Judite & Martins, Pedro S., 2018. "The effect of self-employment on health: Instrumental variables analysis of longitudinal social security data," GLO Discussion Paper Series 245, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    2. Judite Gonçalves & Pedro S. Martins, 2021. "Effects of self-employment on hospitalizations: instrumental variables analysis of social security data," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 1527-1543, October.
    3. Vicki L. Bogan & Angela R. Fertig & David R. Just, 2022. "Self-employment and mental health," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 855-886, September.
    4. Marco Di Cintio & Emanuele Grassi, 2015. "Wage Incentive Profiles in Dual Labour Markets," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 82(328), pages 790-812, October.
    5. Ziebarth, Nicolas R. & Karlsson, Martin, 2010. "A natural experiment on sick pay cuts, sickness absence, and labor costs," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(11-12), pages 1108-1122, December.
    6. Hui Zheng & Jonathan Dirlam & Paola Echave, 2021. "Divergent Trends in the Effects of Early Life Factors on Adult Health," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 40(5), pages 1119-1148, October.
    7. Gabriella Conti & Mark Hanson & Hazel Inskip & Sarah Crozier & Cyrus Cooper & Keith Godfrey, 2018. "Beyond Birth Weight: The Origins of Human Capital," Working Papers 2018-089, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    8. Srikant Devaraj & Marcus T. Wolfe & Pankaj C. Patel, 2021. "Creative destruction and regional health: evidence from the US," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 31(2), pages 573-604, April.
    9. Wei Huang & Xiaoyan Lei & Geert Ridder & John Strauss & Yaohui Zhao, 2013. "Health, Height, Height Shrinkage, and SES at Older Ages: Evidence from China," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(2), pages 86-121, April.
    10. Persson, Sofie & Dahlquist, Gisela & Gerdtham, Ulf-G. & Steen Carlsson, Katarina, 2014. "Childhood Health and Labor Market Outcomes in the Case of Type 1 Diabetes," Working Papers 2014:43, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    11. Stefan Pichler & Nicolas R. Ziebarth, 2015. "The Pros and Cons of Sick Pay Schemes: Testing for Contagious Presenteeism and Shirking Behavior," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1509, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    12. Brandts, Jordi & Corgnet, Brice & Hernán-González, Roberto & Ortiz, José Mª & Solà, Carles, 2021. "Watching or not watching? Access to information and the incentive effects of firing threats," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 672-685.
    13. Bill McCarthy & Mikael Jansson & Cecilia Benoit, 2021. "Job Attributes and Mental Health: A Comparative Study of Sex Work and Hairstyling," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-21, January.
    14. Boeri, Tito & Garibaldi, Pietro, 2019. "A tale of comprehensive labor market reforms: Evidence from the Italian jobs act," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 33-48.
    15. Li, Guangzhong & Fujiyama, Keishi & Wu, Cen & Zheng, Ying, 2024. "Employment protection, corporate governance, and labor productivity around the World," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    16. Susanna Toivanen & Rosane Härter Griep & Christin Mellner & Mikael Nordenmark & Stig Vinberg & Sandra Eloranta, 2019. "Hospitalization due to stroke and myocardial infarction in self-employed individuals and small business owners compared with paid employees in Sweden—a 5-year study," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 53(2), pages 343-354, August.
    17. Pauline Givord & Lionel Wilner, 2015. "When Does the Stepping‐Stone Work? Fixed‐Term Contracts Versus Temporary Agency Work in Changing Economic Conditions," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(5), pages 787-805, August.
    18. Philippe De Vreyer & Nathalie Guilbert & Sandrine Mesple-Somps, 2015. "Impact of Natural Disasters on Education Outcomes: Evidence from the 1987–89 Locust Plague in Mali," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 24(1), pages 57-100.
    19. Armanda Cetrulo & Dario Guarascio, 2018. "Weaker Jobs, Weaker Innovation. Exploring The Temporary Employment-Product Innovation Nexus," Working Papers 0032, ASTRIL - Associazione Studi e Ricerche Interdisciplinari sul Lavoro.
    20. Bhalotra, Sonia & Rawlings, Samantha B., 2011. "Intergenerational persistence in health in developing countries: The penalty of gender inequality?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(3-4), pages 286-299, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    self-employment; hospitalization; sick leave; mortality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

    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:iza:izadps:dp11305. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.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.