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Does Self-Employment Measure Entrepreneurship? Evidence from Great Britain

Author Info

  • Giulia Faggio
  • Olmo Silva

Abstract

Research on entrepreneurship often uses information on self-employment to proxy for business creation and innovative behaviour. However, little evidence has been collected on the link between these measures. In this paper, we use data from the UK Labour Force Survey (LFS) combined with data from the Business Structure Database (BSD), and the Community Innovation Survey (CIS) to study the relation between self-employment, business creation and innovation. In order to do so, we aggregate individual and firm-level data at the Travel-to-Work Area (TTWA) and investigate how the incidence of self-employment correlates with the density of business start-ups and innovative firms. Our results show that in urban areas a higher incidence of self-employment positively and strongly correlates with more business creation and innovation, but this is not true for rural areas. Further analysis suggests that this urban/rural divide is related to lack of employment opportunities in rural areas, which might push some workers into self-employment as a last resort option.

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File URL: http://www.spatialeconomics.ac.uk/textonly/SERC/publications/download/sercdp0109.pdf
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Paper provided by Spatial Economics Research Centre, LSE in its series SERC Discussion Papers with number 0109.

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Date of creation: May 2012
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Handle: RePEc:cep:sercdp:0109
Contact details of provider: Web page: http://www.spatialeconomics.ac.uk/SERC/publications/default.asp

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; self-employment; spatial distribution;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
  • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
  • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)
  • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

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  1. Marshall, Alfred, 1890. "The Principles of Economics," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number marshall1890.
  2. Stephen Gibbons & Henry G. Overman & Panu Pelkonen, 2010. "Wage disparities in Britain: people or place?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 30845, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
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  5. Philippe Bracke & Christian Hilber & Olmo Silva, 2014. "Homeownership and Entrepreneurship: The Role of Mortgage Debt and Commitment," CESifo Working Paper Series 5048, CESifo Group Munich.
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  8. Silvia Ardagna & Annamaria Lusardi, 2008. "Explaining International Differences in Entrepreneurship: The Role of Individual Characteristics and Regulatory Constraints," NBER Working Papers 14012, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  9. Marco Cagetti & Mariacristina De Nardi, 2004. "Taxation, entrepreneurship and wealth," Working Papers 632, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
  10. Michelacci, Claudio & Silva, Olmo, 2006. "Why So Many Local Entrepreneurs?," CEPR Discussion Papers 5828, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
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  14. Philippe Bracke & Christian Hilber & Olmo Silva, 2012. "Homeownerhip and entrepreneurship," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 58436, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
  15. Carroll, Robert, et al, 2000. "Income Taxes and Entrepreneurs' Use of Labor," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(2), pages 324-51, April.
  16. 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 808-27, August.
  17. Marianne Bertrand & Antoinette Schoar, 2006. "The Role of Family in Family Firms," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(2), pages 73-96, Spring.
  18. Martinez-Granado, Maite, 2002. "Self-Employment and Labour Market Transitions: A Multiple State Model," CEPR Discussion Papers 3661, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  19. Kihlstrom, Richard E & Laffont, Jean-Jacques, 1979. "A General Equilibrium Entrepreneurial Theory of Firm Formation Based on Risk Aversion," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(4), pages 719-48, August.
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Cited by:

  1. Daly, Moira, 2015. "The long term returns of attempting self-employment with regular employment as a fall back option," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 26-52.
  2. Bracke, Philippe & Hilber, Christian & Silva, Olmo, 2013. "Homeownership and Entrepreneurship: The Role of Commitment and Mortgage Debt," IZA Discussion Papers 7417, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  3. Katharina Pijnenburg, 2013. "Self-Employment and Economic Performance: A Geographically Weighted Regression Approach for European Regions," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1272, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
  4. Faggio, Giulia & Silva, Olmo, 2014. "Self-employment and entrepreneurship in urban and rural labour markets," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 67-85.
  5. Philippe Bracke & Christian Hilber & Olmo Silva, 2012. "Homeownerhip and entrepreneurship," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 58436, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

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