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Income loss among the self-employed: Implications for individual wellbeing and pandemic policy measures

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  • Schneck, Stefan

Abstract

Due to the pandemic-induced economic crisis, self-employed individuals are currently suering considerable income losses. The self-employed and the members in their households usually form an economic unit. As a consequence, the income cuts not only aect the self-employed themselves but also the rest of their household. We used the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) to calculate how much income the selfemployed are able to sacrice to achieve a subjective barely sucient household income, which we interpret as the minimum level to maintain the standard of living. Our results suggest that full-time self-employed are typically the bread-earners in their households and that, as a consequence, even moderate income losses of the self-employed often lead to problems in maintaining the living standards of their households. Conditional on individual and household characteristics, the self-employed with employees are found to live in households that are less resilient to income losses. Furthermore, a negative correlation between falling short of the barely adequate household income and wellbeing was discovered. Self-employed in households with less than adequate incomes also reported higher concerns about social cohesion. These results have implications for policy - especially in light of the economic crisis induced by the pandemic.

Suggested Citation

  • Schneck, Stefan, 2021. "Income loss among the self-employed: Implications for individual wellbeing and pandemic policy measures," Working Papers 03/21, Institut für Mittelstandsforschung (IfM) Bonn.
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:ifmwps:0321
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    2. Block, Joern & Kritikos, Alexander S. & Priem, Maximilian & Stiel, Caroline, 2022. "Emergency-aid for self-employed in the Covid-19 pandemic: A flash in the pan?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
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    Cited by:

    1. Brink, Siegrun & Weicht, Rebecca & Levering, Britta & Icks, Annette, 2022. "Unternehmertum während der Corona-Pandemie: Individuelle Resilienz," IfM-Materialien 293, Institut für Mittelstandsforschung (IfM) Bonn.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    entrepreneurial households; income; income cuts; self-employment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

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

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