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The Labour Market Consequences of Self-employment Spells: European Evidence

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  • Hyytinen, Ari
  • Rouvinen, Petri

Abstract

We examine how those re-entering paid-employment after a brief self-employment spell fare upon return using data from the European Community Household Panel. Unconditionally, those re-entering paid-employment appear to have considerably lower wages than those staying in the wage sector. This difference appears to be larger in Europe than in the US. Conditional analysis suggests, however, that the difference is more apparent than real : It seems that Europeans select negatively into (and possibly out-of) self-employment, i.e., the likelihood of entering (and exiting) entrepreneurship correlates negatively with unobserved ability and/or in-paid-employment productivity. Our analysis of non-wage outcomes indicates that the selection is mostly involuntary and that for highly educated men, the brief self-employment spells are unemployment in disguise.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy in its series Discussion Papers with number 1129.

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Length: 25 pages
Date of creation: 2008
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:rif:dpaper:1129

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Keywords: self-employment; job mobility; earnings; wage differentials; selection;

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References

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  1. Denis Gromb & David Scharfstein, 2002. "Entrepreneurship in Equilibrium," NBER Working Papers 9001, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  2. Bruce, Donald & Schuetze, Herbert J., 2004. "The labor market consequences of experience in self-employment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(5), pages 575-598, October.
  3. Earle, John S. & Sakova, Zuzana, 2000. "Business start-ups or disguised unemployment? Evidence on the character of self-employment from transition economies," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(5), pages 575-601, September.
  4. Sarah Brown & Lisa Farrel & John Sessions, 2006. "Self-Employment Matching: An Analysis of Dual Earner Couples and Working Households," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 26(2), pages 155-172, 03.
  5. José Ignacio García Pérez & Yolanda Rebollo Sanz, 2004. "Wage changes through job mobility in Europe: A multinomial endogenous switching approach," Economic Working Papers at Centro de Estudios Andaluces E2004/70, Centro de Estudios Andaluces.
  6. Evans, David S & Leighton, Linda S, 1989. "Some Empirical Aspects of Entrepreneurship," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(3), pages 519-35, June.
  7. Williams, Donald R., 2000. "Consequences of self-employment for women and men in the United States," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(5), pages 665-687, September.
  8. Burda, Michael C. & Mertens, Antje, 2001. "Estimating wage losses of displaced workers in Germany," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 15-41, January.
  9. John M. Abowd & Francis Kramarz & David N. Margolis, 1999. "High Wage Workers and High Wage Firms," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 67(2), pages 251-334, March.
  10. Heckman, James J, 1979. "Sample Selection Bias as a Specification Error," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(1), pages 153-61, January.
  11. Arulampalam, Wiji, 2000. "Is Unemployment Really Scarring? Effects of Unemployment Experiences on Wages," IZA Discussion Papers 189, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  12. Munasinghe, Lalith & Sigman, Karl, 2004. "A hobo syndrome? Mobility, wages, and job turnover," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 191-218, April.
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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Hyytinen, Ari & Ilmakunnas, Pekka & Toivanen, Otto, 2013. "The return-to-entrepreneurship puzzle," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 57-67.
  2. Lina Andersson, 2011. "Occupational choice and returns to self-employment among immigrants," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 32(8), pages 900-922, November.
  3. Oberschachtsiek, Dirk, 2010. "How do local labor market conditions and individual characteristics affect quitting selfemployment?," Discussion Papers, Presidential Department P 2010-001, Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB).
  4. Fares, Jean & Tiongson, Erwin R., 2007. "Youth unemployment, labor market transitions, and scarring : evidence from Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2001-04," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4183, The World Bank.
  5. Fernando Munoz-Bullon & Begona Cueto Iglesias, 2008. "The sustainability of start-up firms among formerly wage workers," Business Economics Working Papers wb083108, Universidad Carlos III, Departamento de Economía de la Empresa.

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