IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/eeaeje/249691.html

The Nature of self-employment in Urban Ethiopia

Author

Listed:
  • Getinet, Astatike Haile

Abstract

Various studies on the Ethiopian economy in general and the urban sector in particular have stated about the staggering level of unemployment in the country. Rapidly growing population and a less than satisfactory performance in economic growth over the years, among others, are to blame for this situation. That the unemployment situation is particularly rampant among the youth which constitutes over a third of the population calls for an urgent intervention aimed at improving the fate of the unemployed. Promoting self-employment forms an integral part of any intervention aimed at reducing unemployment. Given this, studying the determinants of self-employment is essential by way of informing concerned parties as to factors important in encouraging self-employment. As well as surveying the relevant literature, the study undertakes an empirical investigation into the nature of selfemployment using data from a unique panel data set, the Ethiopian Urban Socio- Economic Survey. Findings of the study give some evidence that self-employment is largely a route out of unemployment rather than being something driven by entrepreneurship. It also finds a declining trend in the patterns of self-employment over the study period. Very few studies have looked into issues relating to selfemployment in the context of developing countries in general, and none in the case of Ethiopia. As such, this study serves an important role shedding some light on issues pertaining to self-employment.

Suggested Citation

  • Getinet, Astatike Haile, 2009. "The Nature of self-employment in Urban Ethiopia," Ethiopian Journal of Economics, Ethiopian Economics Association, vol. 17(01), pages 1-80, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:eeaeje:249691
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.249691
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/249691/files/Getinet%20Astatike%20Haile_%20The%20Nature%20of%20self-employment%20in%20Urban%20Ethiopia..pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.249691?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bigsten, Arne & Kebede, Bereket & Shimeles, Abebe & Taddesse, Mekonnen, 2003. "Growth and Poverty Reduction in Ethiopia: Evidence from Household Panel Surveys," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 87-106, January.
    2. 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.
    3. Blanchflower, David G., 2000. "Self-employment in OECD countries," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(5), pages 471-505, September.
    4. Evans, David S & Leighton, Linda S, 1989. "Some Empirical Aspects of Entrepreneurship," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(3), pages 519-535, June.
    5. Evans, David S & Jovanovic, Boyan, 1989. "An Estimated Model of Entrepreneurial Choice under Liquidity Constraints," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(4), pages 808-827, August.
    6. Taylor, Mark P, 1996. "Earnings, Independence or Unemployment: Why Become Self-Employed?," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 58(2), pages 253-266, May.
    7. Sophia Rabe-Hesketh & Anders Skrondal & Andrew Pickles, 2004. "GLLAMM Manual," U.C. Berkeley Division of Biostatistics Working Paper Series 1160, Berkeley Electronic Press.
    8. Taylor, Mark P, 1999. "Survival of the Fittest? An Analysis of Self-Employment Duration in Britain," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 109(454), pages 140-155, March.
    9. International Monetary Fund, 1997. "Sierra Leone: Recent Economic Developments," IMF Staff Country Reports 1997/047, International Monetary Fund.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Simon Franklin, 2018. "Location, Search Costs and Youth Unemployment: Experimental Evidence from Transport Subsidies," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(614), pages 2353-2379, September.
    2. Simon Franklin, 2015. "Location, search costs and youth unemployment: A randomized trial of transport subsidies in Ethiopia," CSAE Working Paper Series 2015-11, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    3. Simon Franklin, 2016. "Location, Search Costs and Youth Unemployment: Experimental Evidence from Transport Subsidies in Addis Ababa," SERC Discussion Papers 0199, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.

    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. Jolanda Hessels & José María Millán & Concepción Román, 2015. "The Importance of Being in Control of Business: Work Satisfaction of Employers, Own-account Workers and Employees," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 15-047/VII, Tinbergen Institute.
    2. Román, Concepción & Congregado, Emilio & Millán, José María, 2013. "Start-up incentives: Entrepreneurship policy or active labour market programme?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 151-175.
    3. Paul A. Coomes & Jose Fernandez & Stephan F. Gohmann, 2013. "The Rate of Proprietorship Among Metropolitan Areas: The Impact of the Local Economic Environment and Capital Resources," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 37(4), pages 745-770, July.
    4. Yannis Georgellis & Howard Wall, 2005. "Gender differences in self-employment," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3), pages 321-342.
    5. Peter van der Zwan & Ingrid Verheul & Roy Thurik & Isabel Grilo, 2009. "Entrepreneurial Progress: Climbing the Entrepreneurial Ladder in Europe and the US," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 09-070/3, Tinbergen Institute, revised 17 Mar 2010.
    6. José Millán & Jolanda Hessels & Roy Thurik & Rafael Aguado, 2013. "Determinants of job satisfaction: a European comparison of self-employed and paid employees," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 651-670, April.
    7. Jagannadha Pawan Tamvada & Mili Shrivastava & Tapas Kumar Mishra, 2022. "Education, social identity and self-employment over time: evidence from a developing country," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(4), pages 1449-1468, December.
    8. Magdalena Smyk & Siri Terjesen & Joanna Tyrowicz, 2023. "Gender wage inequality and women's self-employment," GRAPE Working Papers 88, GRAPE Group for Research in Applied Economics.
    9. Marcén, Miriam, 2013. "The effect of culture on self-employment," MPRA Paper 47338, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Åstebro, Thomas & Chen, Jing, 2014. "The entrepreneurial earnings puzzle: Mismeasurement or real?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 88-105.
    11. Hyytinen, Ari & Ilmakunnas, Pekka & Toivanen, Otto, 2013. "The return-to-entrepreneurship puzzle," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 57-67.
    12. Kræn Blume & Mette Ejrnæs & Helena Nielsen & Allan Würtz, 2009. "Labor market transitions of immigrants with emphasis on marginalization and self-employment," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 22(4), pages 881-908, October.
    13. Nadia Simoes & Nuno Crespo & Sandrina B. Moreira, 2016. "Individual Determinants Of Self-Employment Entry: What Do We Really Know?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 783-806, September.
    14. Giuliano Guerra & Roberto Patuelli, 2016. "The Role of Job Satisfaction in Transitions into Self–Employment," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 40(3), pages 543-571, May.
    15. Blanchflower, David G. & Shadforth, Chris, 2007. "Entrepreneurship in the UK," Foundations and Trends(R) in Entrepreneurship, now publishers, vol. 3(4), pages 257-364, July.
    16. Pham, Tho & Talavera, Oleksandr & Zhang, Mao, 2018. "Self-employment, financial development, and well-being: Evidence from China, Russia, and Ukraine," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 754-769.
    17. Taylor, Mark P, 1999. "Self-Employment and Windfall Gains in Britain: Evidence From Panel Data," CEPR Discussion Papers 2084, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Marcén, Miriam, 2014. "The role of culture on self-employment," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 44(S1), pages 20-32.
    19. Gohmann, Stephan F. & Fernandez, Jose M., 2014. "Proprietorship and unemployment in the United States," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 289-309.
    20. Yannis Georgellis & Howard J. Wall, 2006. "Entrepreneurship and the policy environment," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 88(Mar), pages 95-112.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ags:eeaeje:249691. 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eeaa2ea.html .

    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.