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Female Self-Employment and Children: The Case of Sweden

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  • Andersson Joona, Pernilla

    (SOFI, Stockholm University)

Abstract

Previous studies, mostly from Anglo-Saxon countries, find a positive correlation between the presence of young children in the household and self-employment probabilities among women. This has been seen as an indication of women with young children choosing self-employment as a way of balancing work and family commitments. This paper studies the relationship between children and female self-employment in a country with family friendly policies and a generous welfare system: Sweden. The initial hypothesis is that we will not find evidence of a positive effect of children on self-employment among Swedish women since there are other institutions in place aiming at facilitating the combination of work and family. Using Swedish register data for the period 2004-2008 we do, however, find that the presence of young children increases the probability of choosing self-employment also among Swedish women. The effect is strongest for women with very young children, 0-3 years of age. These results also hold in a panel data model that takes individual unobserved heterogeneity into account. We also analyze time-use data and find, contrary to what has been found in many other countries, that self-employed women spend more, or as much, time on market work than wage-earning women. This raises doubts about whether women in Sweden chose self-employment as a way of balancing work and family commitments. We suggest an alternative interpretation which is that women who chose self-employment while the children are young in fact are women with strong preferences for market work.

Suggested Citation

  • Andersson Joona, Pernilla, 2014. "Female Self-Employment and Children: The Case of Sweden," IZA Discussion Papers 8486, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
  • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8486
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    6. Nzinga Broussard & Ralph Chami & Gregory Hess, 2015. "(Why) Do self-employed parents have more children?," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 297-321, June.
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    8. Nabanita Datta Gupta & Nina Smith & Mette Verner, 2008. "PERSPECTIVE ARTICLE: The impact of Nordic countries’ family friendly policies on employment, wages, and children," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 65-89, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Dominik Buttler & Eva Sierminska, 2020. "Career or Flexible Work Arrangements? Gender Differences in Self-employment in a Young Market Economy," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 70-95, March.
    2. Suprinovič, Olga & Schneck, Stefan & Kay, Rosemarie, 2015. "Family-related employment interruptions and self-employment of women: Does policy matter?," Working Papers 03/15, Institut für Mittelstandsforschung (IfM) Bonn.
    3. Arvid Raknerud & Marit Rønsen, 2014. "Why are there so few female entrepreneurs? An examination of gender differences in entrepreneurship using Norwegian registry data," Discussion Papers 790, Statistics Norway, Research Department.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    self-employment; family; work; fertility;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

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