IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/joevec/v32y2022i3d10.1007_s00191-021-00746-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The relation between public assistance and self-employment in census tracts: a long-term perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Pankaj C. Patel

    (Villanova School of Business, Villanova University)

  • Cornelius A. Rietveld

    (Erasmus University Rotterdam)

  • Jack I. Richter

    (Florida State University)

Abstract

We present evidence on the long-term relationship between the breadth (the proportion of households) and depth (the amount per household) of public assistance and the prevalence of self-employment in US neighbourhoods. The analysis of decennial data of 71,437 census tracts over four decades (1970 to 2000) shows that the poverty ratio lowers self-employment, and that breadth (but not depth) of public assistance mitigates the negative relationship between the poverty ratio and self-employment. The results are robust to alternate model specifications and are informative about the distributional effects of welfare spendings.

Suggested Citation

  • Pankaj C. Patel & Cornelius A. Rietveld & Jack I. Richter, 2022. "The relation between public assistance and self-employment in census tracts: a long-term perspective," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 32(3), pages 891-927, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:joevec:v:32:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s00191-021-00746-3
    DOI: 10.1007/s00191-021-00746-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00191-021-00746-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00191-021-00746-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ziliak, James P. & Hardy, Bradley & Bollinger, Christopher, 2011. "Earnings volatility in America: Evidence from matched CPS," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 742-754.
    2. Marianne P. Bitler & Jonah B. Gelbach & Hilary W. Hoynes, 2006. "What Mean Impacts Miss: Distributional Effects of Welfare Reform Experiments," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(4), pages 988-1012, September.
    3. Blanchflower, David G., 2000. "Self-employment in OECD countries," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(5), pages 471-505, September.
    4. Thurik, A. Roy & Carree, Martin A. & van Stel, André & Audretsch, David B., 2008. "Does self-employment reduce unemployment?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 673-686, November.
    5. Orazio P. Attanasio & Guglielmo Weber, 2010. "Consumption and Saving: Models of Intertemporal Allocation and Their Implications for Public Policy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(3), pages 693-751, September.
    6. Sutter, Christopher & Bruton, Garry D. & Chen, Juanyi, 2019. "Entrepreneurship as a solution to extreme poverty: A review and future research directions," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 197-214.
    7. Nada Kobeissi, 2010. "Gender factors and female entrepreneurship: International evidence and policy implications," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-35, March.
    8. A. Colin Cameron & Douglas L. Miller, 2015. "A Practitioner’s Guide to Cluster-Robust Inference," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(2), pages 317-372.
    9. Jörn Block & Philipp Sandner, 2009. "Necessity and Opportunity Entrepreneurs and Their Duration in Self-employment: Evidence from German Micro Data," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 117-137, June.
    10. Olav Sorenson, 2017. "Regional ecologies of entrepreneurship," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 17(5), pages 959-974.
    11. Erica Field & Rohini Pande & John Papp & Natalia Rigol, 2013. "Does the Classic Microfinance Model Discourage Entrepreneurship among the Poor? Experimental Evidence from India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(6), pages 2196-2226, October.
    12. Scott Shane, 2009. "Why encouraging more people to become entrepreneurs is bad public policy," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 141-149, August.
    13. Alexandra Tsvetkova & Mark Partridge & Michael Betz, 2019. "Self-employment effects on regional growth: a bigger bang for a buck?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 52(1), pages 27-45, January.
    14. Neumark, David & Young, Timothy, 2019. "Enterprise zones, poverty, and labor market outcomes: Resolving conflicting evidence," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    15. Saul Estrin & Tomasz Mickiewicz, 2012. "Shadow Economy and Entrepreneurial Entry," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(4), pages 559-578, November.
    16. Maarten van Ham & Darja Reuschke & Reinout Kleinhans & Colin Mason & Stephen Syrett (ed.), 2017. "Entrepreneurial Neighbourhoods," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 17106.
    17. Lisa Gennetian & Sharon Wolf & Heather Hill & Pamela Morris, 2015. "Intrayear Household Income Dynamics and Adolescent School Behavior," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(2), pages 455-483, April.
    18. Philip Oreopoulos, 2003. "The Long-Run Consequences of Living in a Poor Neighborhood," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(4), pages 1533-1575.
    19. Daniel Friedlander & Philip K. Robins, 1997. "The Distributional Impacts of Social Programs," Evaluation Review, , vol. 21(5), pages 531-553, October.
    20. Anjomani, Ardeshir, 2002. "Regional growth and interstate migration," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 239-265, December.
    21. Garance Genicot & Debraj Ray, 2020. "Aspirations and Economic Behavior," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 12(1), pages 715-746, August.
    22. Morduch, Jonathan, 2000. "The Microfinance Schism," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 617-629, April.
    23. Colin C. Williams & Jan Windebank, 2002. "The Uneven Geographies of Informal Economic Activities: a Case Study of Two British Cities," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 16(2), pages 231-250, June.
    24. Stough, Roger R., 2016. "Entrepreneurship and Regional Economic Development: Some reflections," INVESTIGACIONES REGIONALES - Journal of REGIONAL RESEARCH, Asociación Española de Ciencia Regional, issue 36, pages 129-150.
    25. Stephen Devereux, 2002. "Can Social Safety Nets Reduce Chronic Poverty?," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 20(5), pages 657-675, November.
    26. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    27. Linda Scott & Catherine Dolan & Mary Johnstone–Louis & Kimberly Sugden & Maryalice Wu, 2012. "Enterprise and Inequality: A Study of Avon in South Africa," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 36(3), pages 543-568, May.
    28. André Stel & Peter van der Zwan, 2020. "Analyzing the changing education distributions of solo self-employed workers and employer entrepreneurs in Europe," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 429-445, August.
    29. Rodriguez, E., 2001. "Keeping the unemployed healthy: The effect of means-tested and entitlement benefits in Britain, Germany, and the United States," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 91(9), pages 1403-1411.
    30. Nada Eissa & Hilary W. Hoynes, 2006. "Behavioral Responses to Taxes: Lessons from the EITC and Labor Supply," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 20, pages 73-110, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    31. Falco, Paolo & Haywood, Luke, 2016. "Entrepreneurship versus joblessness: Explaining the rise in self-employment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 245-265.
    32. Stacy Dickert & Scott Houser & John Karl Scholz, 1995. "The Earned Income Tax Credit and Transfer Programs: A Study of Labor Market and Program Participation," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 9, pages 1-50, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    33. Jeffrey Grogger, 2003. "The Effects of Time Limits, the EITC, and Other Policy Changes on Welfare Use, Work, and Income among Female-Headed Families," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(2), pages 394-408, May.
    34. Nathaniel Baum-Snow & Daniel Hartley & Kwan Ok Lee, 2019. "The Long-Run Effects of Neighborhood Change on Incumbent Families," Working Paper Series WP-2019-2, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    35. Robert Moffitt, 2015. "The Deserving Poor, the Family, and the U.S. Welfare System," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(3), pages 729-749, June.
    36. Chivers, David, 2017. "Success, survive or escape? Aspirations and poverty traps," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 116-132.
    37. Jiaochen Liang & Stephan Goetz, 2016. "Self-employment and trade shock mitigation," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 45-56, January.
    38. Martin Andersson & Johan P Larsson, 2016. "Local entrepreneurship clusters in cities," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 16(1), pages 39-66.
    39. Urbano, David & Aparicio, Sebastian, 2016. "Entrepreneurship capital types and economic growth: International evidence," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 34-44.
    40. Magnus Henrekson & Tino Sanandaji, 2020. "Measuring Entrepreneurship: Do Established Metrics Capture Schumpeterian Entrepreneurship?," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 44(4), pages 733-760, July.
    41. Lucio Carlos Freire-Gibb & Kristian Nielsen, 2014. "Entrepreneurship Within Urban and Rural Areas: Creative People and Social Networks," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(1), pages 139-153, January.
    42. Illoong Kwon & Kitae Sohn, 2021. "Trust or distrust: entrepreneurs vs. self-employed," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 1553-1570, April.
    43. Ellwood, David T., 2000. "The Impact of the Earned Income Tax Credit and Social Policy Reforms on Work, Marriage, and Living Arrangements," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 53(n. 4), pages 1063-1106, December.
    44. Johanna Mair & Ignasi Marti & Marc Ventresca, 2012. "Building Inclusive Markets in Rural Bangladesh : How Intermediaries Work Institutional Voids," Post-Print hal-02276707, HAL.
    45. Colin C Williams, 2014. "Out of the shadows: a classification of economies by the size and character of their informal sector," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 28(5), pages 735-753, October.
    46. Martin, Bruce C. & McNally, Jeffrey J. & Kay, Michael J., 2013. "Examining the formation of human capital in entrepreneurship: A meta-analysis of entrepreneurship education outcomes," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 211-224.
    47. Koellinger, Philipp & Minniti, Maria, 2009. "Unemployment benefits crowd out nascent entrepreneurial activity," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 103(2), pages 96-98, May.
    48. Johanna Mair & Ignasi Marti & Marc Ventresca, 2012. "Building Inclusive Markets in Rural Bangladesh : How Intermediaries Work Institutional Voids," Post-Print hal-02312706, HAL.
    49. Jiaochen Liang & Stephan J. Goetz, 2016. "Self-employment and trade shock mitigation," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 45-56, January.
    50. Eissa, Nada & Hoynes, Hilary Williamson, 2004. "Taxes and the labor market participation of married couples: the earned income tax credit," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(9-10), pages 1931-1958, August.
    51. Robert A. Moffitt, 1999. "Demographic Change and Public Assistance Expenditures," NBER Working Papers 6995, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    52. Marty Chen, 2005. "Rethinking the Informal Economy: Linkages with the Formal Economy and the Formal Regulatory Environment," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2005-10, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    53. Hanson, Kenneth, 2010. "The Food Assistance National Input-Output Multiplier (FANIOM) Model and Stimulus Effects of SNAP," Economic Research Report 262247, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    54. Eric Crettaz & Christian Suter, 2013. "The Impact of Adaptive Preferences on Subjective Indicators: An Analysis of Poverty Indicators," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 114(1), pages 139-152, October.
    55. Charles Braymen & Florence Neymotin, 2014. "Enclaves and entrepreneurial success," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 3(2), pages 197-221, October.
    56. Ellwood, David T., 2000. "The Impact of the Earned Income Tax Credit and Social Policy Reforms on Work, Marriage, and Living Arrangements," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 53(4), pages 1063-1106, December.
    57. Gary S. Fields, 2019. "Self-employment and poverty in developing countries," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 1-60, March.
    58. Douglas Cumming & Sofia Johan & Ikenna Uzuegbunam, 2020. "An anatomy of entrepreneurial pursuits in relation to poverty," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(1-2), pages 21-40, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Elliott Isaac, 2020. "Marriage, Divorce, and Social Safety Net Policy," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 86(4), pages 1576-1612, April.
    2. Cancian, Maria & Levinson, Arik, 2006. "Labor Supply Effects of the Earned Income Tax Credit: Evidence From Wisconsin's Supplemental Benefit for Families With Three Children," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 59(4), pages 781-800, December.
    3. Marianne Bitler & Hilary Hoynes & Elira Kuka, 2017. "Do In-Work Tax Credits Serve as a Safety Net?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 52(2), pages 319-350.
    4. Leigh Andrew, 2010. "Who Benefits from the Earned Income Tax Credit? Incidence among Recipients, Coworkers and Firms," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-43, May.
    5. Simpson, Nicole B., 2013. "Families, Taxes and the Welfare System," IZA Discussion Papers 7369, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Sutter, Christopher & Bruton, Garry D. & Chen, Juanyi, 2019. "Entrepreneurship as a solution to extreme poverty: A review and future research directions," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 197-214.
    7. David Urbano & Sebastian Aparicio & David Audretsch, 2019. "Twenty-five years of research on institutions, entrepreneurship, and economic growth: what has been learned?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 21-49, June.
    8. Cueto, Begona & Pruneda, Gabriel, 2015. "Job Satisfaction of Wage and Self-Employed workers. Do preferences make a difference?," MPRA Paper 65432, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Gunter, Samara, 2013. "State Earned Income Tax Credits and Participation in Regular and Informal Work," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 66(1), pages 33-62, March.
    10. LaLumia, Sara, 2009. "The Earned Income Tax Credit and Reported Self-Employment Income," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 62(2), pages 191-217, June.
    11. Catherine Laffineur & Saulo Dubard Barbosa & Alain Fayolle & Emeran Nziali, 2017. "Active labor market programs’ effects on entrepreneurship and unemployment," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 49(4), pages 889-918, December.
    12. Tiago Freire, 2018. "Wage Subsidies And The Labor Supply Of Older People: Evidence From Singapore’S Workfare Income Supplement Scheme," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 63(05), pages 1101-1139, December.
    13. Spencer Bastani & Ylva Moberg & Håkan Selin, 2021. "The Anatomy of the Extensive Margin Labor Supply Response," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 123(1), pages 33-59, January.
    14. Amanda Y. Agan & Michael D. Makowsky, 2018. "The Minimum Wage, EITC, and Criminal Recidivism," Working Papers 616, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    15. Nada Eissa & Hilary W. Hoynes, 2006. "Behavioral Responses to Taxes: Lessons from the EITC and Labor Supply," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 20, pages 73-110, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Goodpaster Natalie K, 2010. "Leaves and Leaving: The Family and Medical Leave Act and the Decline in Maternal Labor Force Participation," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-38, January.
    17. Kenneth A. Couch & Douglas J. Besharov & David Neumark, 2013. "Spurring Job Creation in Response to Severe Recessions: Reconsidering Hiring Credits," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(1), pages 142-171, January.
    18. Shirley Peter, 2020. "First-time mothers and the labor market effects of the earned income tax credit," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 10(1), pages 1-53, March.
    19. Congressional Budget Office, 2018. "CBO’s Projection of Labor Force Participation Rates: Working Paper 2018-04," Working Papers 53616, Congressional Budget Office.
    20. Hilary Hoynes & Doug Miller & David Simon, 2015. "Income, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and Infant Health," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 172-211, February.

    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:spr:joevec:v:32:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s00191-021-00746-3. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.