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Who are business owners and what are they doing?

Author

Listed:
  • Jonathan Cribb
  • Helen Miller
  • Thomas Pope
  • Jonathan Cribb

Abstract

Business owners have been the fastest-growing part of the UK labour force since at least 2000. Between 2000–01 and 2015–16, the number of employees grew by 15%, while selfemployment (including those operating as a sole trader or as a partner in a partnership) grew by 25% and the number of directors of companies with at most two directors more than doubled. The number of new businesses created in the UK between 2007–08 and 2015–16 was higher than in any other OECD country. This is an important labour market trend and is often hailed as a success because small businesses and start-ups are commonly viewed as the engines of growth. This is questionable in light of evidence that the UK has a long tail of low-productivity firms. However, to date, our understanding of business owners has been limited because they are not well captured in traditional survey data sources. Learning more about this group is crucial for understanding labour market trends better and informing public policy as it relates to business owners. In this report, we use the universe of business owners’ administrative tax records provided by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to learn more about business owners and their businesses than has previously been possible using survey data. Specifically, using these data, this report documents the numbers, characteristics, incomes and business activities of business owner-managers in the UK. We track the same business owners over time – something that has not been possible before – and use this to analyse patterns of business start-up and closure and to explain substantial falls in sole trader incomes since 2008

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan Cribb & Helen Miller & Thomas Pope & Jonathan Cribb, 2019. "Who are business owners and what are they doing?," Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE) Discussion Papers ESCoE DP-2019-12, Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE).
    • Handle: RePEc:nsr:escoed:escoe-dp-2019-12
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tatomir, Srdan, 2015. "Self-employment: what can we learn from recent developments?," Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin, Bank of England, vol. 55(1), pages 56-66.
    2. Martin Neil Baily & Eric J. Bartelsman & John Haltiwanger, 2001. "Labor Productivity: Structural Change And Cyclical Dynamics," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 83(3), pages 420-433, August.
    3. Robert H. Topel & Michael P. Ward, 1992. "Job Mobility and the Careers of Young Men," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(2), pages 439-479.
    4. Dan Andrews & Chiara Criscuolo & Peter N. Gal, 2016. "The Best versus the Rest: The Global Productivity Slowdown, Divergence across Firms and the Role of Public Policy," OECD Productivity Working Papers 5, OECD Publishing.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Andreas Teichgraber & John Van Reenen, 2021. "Have Productivity and Pay Decoupled in the UK?," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 41, pages 31-60, Fall.
    2. Stuart Adam & Helen Miller, 2019. "Principles and practice of taxing small business," IFS Working Papers W19/31, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    3. Stephen Daly & Helen Hughson & Glen Loutzenhiser, 2021. "Valuation for the purposes of a wealth tax," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(3-4), pages 615-650, September.
    4. Advani, Arun, 2021. "Missing Incomes in the UK : Evidence and Policy Implications," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1364, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    5. Alexander Bowyer & Richard Dorsett, 2022. "What has been the Impact of COVID-19 on Self-employment Relative to Paid Employment in the UK," Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE) Discussion Papers ESCoE DP-2022-19, Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE).
    6. Van Dijcke, David & Buckmann, Marcus & Turrell, Arthur & Key, Tomas, 2023. "Vacancy posting, firm balance sheets, and pandemic policy," Bank of England working papers 1033, Bank of England.
    7. Arun Advani & Helen Hughson & Hannah Tarrant, 2021. "Revenue and distributional modelling for a UK wealth tax," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(3-4), pages 699-736, September.
    8. Massenz, Gabriella, 2023. "On the behavioral effects of tax policy," Other publications TiSEM eb44a9f7-b859-480d-b2e4-4, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    9. Helen Miller & Thomas Pope & Kate Smith, 2024. "Intertemporal Income Shifting and the Taxation of Business Owner-Managers," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 106(1), pages 184-201, January.
    10. Jonathan Cribb & Robert Joyce & Thomas Wernham, 2023. "Twenty‐five years of income inequality in Britain: the role of wages, household earnings and redistribution," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(3), pages 251-274, September.
    11. Jagjit S. Chadha & Richard Barwell, 2019. "Renewing our Monetary Vows: Open Letters to the Governor of the Bank of England," National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) Occasional Papers 58, National Institute of Economic and Social Research.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    self-employment; business ownership; entrepreneurship;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

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