IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp14216.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Testing the Differential Impact of COVID-19 on Self-Employed Women and Men in the United Kingdom

Author

Listed:
  • Reuschke, Darja

    (University of St. Andrews)

  • Henley, Andrew

    (Cardiff University)

  • Daniel, Elizabeth

    (The Open University)

  • Price, Victoria

    (University of Southampton)

Abstract

This paper investigates whether the female self-employed are more affected by the COVID-19 crisis than the male self-employed using longitudinal data four months following the first 'lockdown' in the UK. We specifically test the role of family/social, economic and psychological factors on gendered differential impact. We find that self-employment exits are not gendered but women are more likely to experience reductions in hours worked and earnings. This greater adverse impact on women's working hours and earnings is despite family responsibilities and home-schooling, industrial gender segregation and women's greater propensity to run a non-employing business and to work part-time. However, lower attitude to risk in women is associated with lower risk of reduction in earnings. Policy needs to look beyond business exits when considering crisis support for the self-employed.

Suggested Citation

  • Reuschke, Darja & Henley, Andrew & Daniel, Elizabeth & Price, Victoria, 2021. "Testing the Differential Impact of COVID-19 on Self-Employed Women and Men in the United Kingdom," IZA Discussion Papers 14216, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14216
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp14216.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Adams-Prassl, A. & Boneva, T. & Golin, M. & Rauh, C., 2020. "Work Tasks That Can Be Done From Home: Evidence on Variation Within and Across Occupations and Industries," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2040, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    2. Jenkins, Stephen P, 1995. "Easy Estimation Methods for Discrete-Time Duration Models," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 57(1), pages 129-138, February.
    3. Florian Noseleit, 2014. "Female self-employment and children," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 549-569, October.
    4. Martin Obschonka & Eva Schmitt-Rodermund & Antonio Terracciano, 2014. "Personality and the Gender Gap in Self-Employment: A Multi-Nation Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(8), pages 1-11, August.
    5. Claudia Hupkau & Barbara Petrongolo, 2020. "Work, Care and Gender during the COVID‐19 Crisis," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(3), pages 623-651, September.
    6. Parker,Simon C., 2018. "The Economics of Entrepreneurship," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781316621714, September.
    7. Sergio A. Contreras, 2019. "Self-Employment in Times of Crisis: The Case of the Spanish Financial Crisis," Economies, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-14, August.
    8. Marc Cowling & Susan Marlow & Weixi Liu, 0. "Gender and bank lending after the global financial crisis: are women entrepreneurs safer bets?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-28.
    9. Wellington, Alison J., 2006. "Self-employment: the new solution for balancing family and career?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 357-386, June.
    10. Ayala, Juan-Carlos & Manzano, Guadalupe, 2014. "The resilience of the entrepreneur. Influence on the success of the business. A longitudinal analysis," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 126-135.
    11. Steven C. Deller & Tessa Conroy & Philip Watson, 2017. "Women business owners: a source of stability during the great recession?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(56), pages 5686-5697, December.
    12. Adams-Prassl, Abigail & Boneva, Teodora & Rauh, Christopher & Golin, Marta, 2020. "Work Tasks That Can Be Done From Home: Evidence on Variation Within & Across Occupations and Industries," CEPR Discussion Papers 14901, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. Donald Houston, 2020. "Local resistance to rising unemployment in the context of the COVID‐19 mitigation policies across Great Britain," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(6), pages 1189-1209, December.
    14. Andrew Henley, 2017. "The post-crisis growth in the self-employed: volunteers or reluctant recruits?," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(9), pages 1312-1323, September.
    15. Marco Caliendo & Frank Fossen & Alexander Kritikos, 2009. "Risk attitudes of nascent entrepreneurs–new evidence from an experimentally validated survey," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 153-167, February.
    16. Susan Marlow & Maura McAdam, 2012. "Analyzing the Influence of Gender upon High–Technology Venturing within the Context of Business Incubation," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 36(4), pages 655-676, July.
    17. Bullough, Amanda & Renko, Maija, 2013. "Entrepreneurial resilience during challenging times," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 343-350.
    18. Adams-Prassl, Abi & Boneva, Teodora & Golin, Marta & Rauh, Christopher, 2022. "Work that can be done from home: evidence on variation within and across occupations and industries," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    19. Ye Liu & Thomas Schøtt & Chuqing Zhang, 2019. "Women’s experiences of legitimacy, satisfaction and commitment as entrepreneurs: embedded in gender hierarchy and networks in private and business spheres," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(3-4), pages 293-307, March.
    20. Saridakis, George & Marlow, Susan & Storey, David J., 2014. "Do different factors explain male and female self-employment rates?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 345-362.
    21. David G. Blanchflower & Phillip B. Levine & David J. Zimmerman, 2003. "Discrimination in the Small-Business Credit Market," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(4), pages 930-943, November.
    22. Titan Alon & Matthias Doepke & Jane Olmstead-Rumsey & Michèle Tertilt, 2020. "The Impact of COVID-19 on Gender Equality," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2020_163, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    23. Muñoz, Pablo & Naudé, Wim & Williams, Nick & Williams, Trenton & Frías, Rodrigo, 2020. "Reorienting entrepreneurial support infrastructure to tackle a social crisis: A rapid response," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 14(C).
    24. Katherine Lim, 2019. "Do American mothers use self-employment as a flexible work alternative?," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 805-842, September.
    25. Justin Doran & Bernard Fingleton, 2016. "Employment Resilience in Europe and the 2008 Economic Crisis: Insights from Micro-Level Data," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(4), pages 644-656, April.
    26. Per Davidsson & Scott R. Gordon, 2016. "Much Ado about Nothing? The Surprising Persistence of Nascent Entrepreneurs through Macroeconomic Crisis," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 40(4), pages 915-941, July.
    27. 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.
    28. Amelia Biehl & Tami Gurley-Calvez & Brian Hill, 2014. "Self-employment of older Americans: do recessions matter?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 297-309, February.
    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. Yuan Zhi Seah, 2021. "COVID-19 and Its Effects on Attitudes toward Opportunity-Motivated Entrepreneurship: Before and after Lockdown," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-13, August.
    2. Oluwasheyi Oladipo & Katarzyna Platt & Hyoung Suk Shim, 2023. "Female entrepreneurs managing from home," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 447-464, August.

    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. Stefanie Stantcheva, 2022. "Inequalities in the times of a pandemic," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 37(109), pages 5-41.
    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. Marco Caliendo & Frank M Fossen & Alexander S Kritikos, 2022. "Personality characteristics and the decision to hire [Do the unemployed become successful entrepreneurs?]," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 31(3), pages 736-761.
    4. Deole, Sumit S. & Deter, Max & Huang, Yue, 2023. "Home sweet home: Working from home and employee performance during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    5. Jacek Rothert, 2021. "Optimal federal transfers during uncoordinated response to a pandemic," GRAPE Working Papers 58, GRAPE Group for Research in Applied Economics.
    6. Amairisa Koukia & Robert M. Sauer, 2022. "Remote Work, Children’s Health and the Racial Gap in Female Wages," CHILD Working Papers Series 104 JEL Classification: C, Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics (CHILD) - CCA.
    7. Kouki, Amairisa & Sauer, Robert M., 2022. "Remote Work, Children's Health and the Racial Gap in Female Wages," IZA Discussion Papers 15072, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. YAMAMURA, Eiji & Tsutsui, Yoshiro, 2020. "Impact of closing schools on mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence using panel data from Japan," MPRA Paper 105023, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Chihiro Inoue & Yusuke Ishihata & Shintaro Yamaguchi, 2024. "Working from home leads to more family-oriented men," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 783-829, June.
    10. Eiji Yamamura & Yoshiro Tsustsui, 2021. "School closures and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(4), pages 1261-1298, October.
    11. Reuschke, Darja & Houston, Donald, 2020. "Revisiting the gender gap in commuting through self-employment," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    12. Daniela Del Boca & Noemi Oggero & Paola Profeta & Mariacristina Rossi, 2020. "Women’s and men’s work, housework and childcare, before and during COVID-19," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 1001-1017, December.
    13. Eun-Mi Baek & Woo-Yung Kim & Yoon-Jeong Kwon, 2021. "The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Workplace Accidents in Korea," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-14, August.
    14. Takanori Adachi & Takanori Hisada, 2017. "Gender differences in entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship: an empirical analysis," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 447-486, March.
    15. Gottlieb Charles & Grobovšek Jan & Poschke Markus & Saltiel Fernando, 2022. "Lockdown Accounting," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 22(1), pages 197-210, January.
    16. Alipour, Jean-Victor & Fadinger, Harald & Schymik, Jan, 2021. "My home is my castle – The benefits of working from home during a pandemic crisis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    17. Behrens, Kristian & Kichko, Sergei & Thisse, Jacques-Francois, 2024. "Working from home: Too much of a good thing?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    18. Toshihiro Okubo, 2024. "Non‐routine tasks and ICT tools in telework," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 38(2), pages 177-202, June.
    19. Jordy Meekes & Wolter H J Hassink & Guyonne Kalb, 2023. "Essential work and emergency childcare: identifying gender differences in COVID-19 effects on labour demand and supply," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 75(2), pages 393-417.
    20. Michael Gibbs & Friederike Mengel & Christoph Siemroth, 2023. "Work from Home and Productivity: Evidence from Personnel and Analytics Data on Information Technology Professionals," Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 7-41.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    entrepreneurship; self-employment; COVID-19; gender; labour supply;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship

    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:dp14216. 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.