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Changing Patterns of Ethnic Minority Self-Employment in Britain: Evidence from Census Microdata

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Author Info

  • Clark, Ken

    () (University of Manchester)

  • Drinkwater, Stephen

    () (Swansea University)

Abstract

The over-representation of certain ethnic minority and immigrant groups in self-employment is, in common with other developed countries, a notable feature of the UK labour market. Compared to substantial growth in self-employment in the 1980s, the 1990s saw overall self-employment rates plateau. Despite this, some minority groups experienced continued growth whilst others, particularly Chinese and Indian males and Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Chinese females, saw their self-employment rates decline. In this paper we use microdata samples from the 1991 and 2001 Censuses to investigate the trends in ethnic entrepreneurship. Using decomposition methods we find that, for males from the Asian groups, changes in observable characteristics associated with an increasing proportion of second generation individuals explain much of the decline in self-employment. This, which is also true of Chinese females, reflects in part the age structure and educational experiences of the second generation. The dynamics of Black male and Pakistani/Bangladeshi female entrepreneurship are less easy to explain. We also find that, while there is no evidence of self-employment being an “enclave” phenomenon, local economic conditions do affect rates of entrepreneurship for some groups, notably Pakistanis and Bangladeshis.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 2495.

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Length: 40 pages
Date of creation: Dec 2006
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2495

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Keywords: ethnicity; entrepreneurship; self-employment; immigrants;

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References

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  1. Ronald Oaxaca, . "Male-Female Wage Differentials in Urban Labor Markets," Working Papers 396, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
  2. Kenneth Clark & Stephen Drinkwater, 2002. "Enclaves, neighbourhood effects and employment outcomes: Ethnic minorities in England and Wales," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 5-29.
  3. William E. Even & David A. Macpherson, 1993. "The Decline of Private-Sector Unionism and the Gender Wage Gap," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 28(2), pages 279-296.
  4. David G. Blanchflower, 2004. "Self-Employment: More may not be better," NBER Working Papers 10286, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  5. Clark, Kenneth & Drinkwater, Stephen, 1998. "Ethnicity and Self-Employment in Britain," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 60(3), pages 383-407, August.
  6. Clark, Kenneth & Drinkwater, Stephen, 2000. "Pushed out or pulled in? Self-employment among ethnic minorities in England and Wales," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(5), pages 603-628, September.
  7. Simon Parker & Tim Barmby & Yacine Belghitar, 2004. "Wage Uncertainty And The Labour Supply Of Self-Employed Workers," Royal Economic Society Annual Conference 2004 67, Royal Economic Society.
  8. Parker,Simon C., 2004. "The Economics of Self-Employment and Entrepreneurship," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521828130.
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Cited by:
  1. Ken Clark & Stephen Drinkwater, 2010. "Patterns of ethnic self-employment in time and space: evidence from British Census microdata," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 34(3), pages 323-338, April.
  2. Martin Kahanec & Mariapia Mendola, 2007. "Social Determinants of Labor Market Status of Ethnic Minorities in Britain," Working Papers 125, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Nov 2007.
  3. Robert W. Fairlie & Julie Zissimopoulos & Harry Krashinsky, 2010. "The International Asian Business Success Story? A Comparison of Chinese, Indian and Other Asian Businesses in the United States, Canada and United Kingdom," NBER Chapters, in: International Differences in Entrepreneurship, pages 179-208 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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