Modelling the incidence of self-employment has traditionally proved problematic. Whilst the individual supply side characteristics of the self-employed are well documented, we argue that the literature has largely neglected demand-side aspects. We explore the determinants of self-employment using individual level data drawn from the U.S. Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). We present results from an econometric framework, the Parameterised Dogit model, that allows us to separately, and simultaneously, model individual heterogeneity (i.e. supply side) and employment type heterogeneity (i.e. demand-side) influences that determine self-employment. Our findings suggest that whilst individual characteristics are important determinants of self-employment, there are also factors which are specific to the type of employment that influence whether an individual is self-employed.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers with number
2008010.