Contemporary labor markets are characterized by rapidly growing numbers of solo self-employed workers who have their own businesses without employing employees. However, research on solo ...self-employment has almost exclusively focused on the decision to move into self-employment, thereby failing to consider the long-term career consequences of being solo self-employed. To complement existing research, we examined patterns of career self-management strategies among the solo self-employed in light of their career sustainability and enablers and barriers in their unique work context. We conducted 102 interviews among a heterogeneous sample of Dutch solo self-employed workers and identified four career self-management patterns: proactive crafters, adaptive crafters, survivors, and passive balancers. We found differences in their career sustainability (i.e., happiness, health, and productivity). Specifically, their happiness is overall sufficient while the level of productivity is mixed, and their health seems to be most problematic. This study contributes to the nascent scholarly literature on solo self-employment and career sustainability. Policymakers can use our findings to promote sustainable careers among the solo self-employed.
•We interviewed 102 solo self-employed workers across sectors about their career sustainability.•We identified four career self-management patterns.•Career self-management patterns interact with contextual factors and impact career sustainability differently.•Solo self-employed workers' happiness is fine while productivity is mixed, and their health seems to be most problematic.
Self-employment is an essential form of non-agricultural employment, and its nature has been rarely identified in recent studies. From the perspectives of the human capital, social capital, and ...family assets of rural laborers, this study focuses on determining self-employment by using the nationally representative data on the rural labor force in China. Through the static comparative analysis between three groups of laborers in self-employment, wage employment, farming, and the dynamic comparative analysis of laborers entering into and exiting from self-employment, the study shows that self-employment of rural laborers in China is almost opportunity-driven or moving toward opportunistic self-employment. Human capital, social capital, and family assets promote rural laborers shifting from wage employment to self-employment and stimulate the establishment of high-value enterprises. The study suggests that local governments should increase the investments in rural education and vocational skills training and strengthen the availability of rural credit to lay a good foundation for self-employment activities in rural areas.
This paper analyzes heterogeneity among the self-employed in 74 developing countries, representing two-thirds of the population of the developing world. After profiling how worker characteristics ...vary by employment status, it classifies self-employed workers outside agriculture as “successful” or “unsuccessful” entrepreneurs, based on two measures of success: whether the worker is an employer, and whether the worker resides in a non-poor household. Four main findings emerge. First, jobs exhibit a clear pecking order, with household income and worker education highest for employers, followed by wage and salaried employees, non-agricultural own-account workers, non-agricultural unpaid family workers, and finally agricultural workers. Second, a substantial minority of own-account workers reside in non-poor households, suggesting that their profits are often a secondary source of household income. Third, as per capita income increases across countries, the structure of employment shifts rapidly, first out of agriculture into unsuccessful non-agricultural self-employment, and then mainly into non-agricultural wage employment. Finally, roughly one-third of the unsuccessful entrepreneurs share similar characteristics with their successful counterparts, suggesting they have the potential to be successful but face constraints to growth. The authors conclude that although interventions such as access to credit can benefit a substantial portion of the self-employed, effectively targeting the minority of self-employed with higher growth potential is important, particularly in low-income contexts. The results also highlight the potential benefits of policies that facilitate shifts in the nature of work, first from agricultural labor into non-agricultural self-employment, and then into wage and salaried jobs.
The existence of liquidity constraints for entrepreneurs has been challenged by the finding that business entry rates are invariant throughout most of the asset distribution and increase dramatically ...only at the top of this distribution. We reexamine the liquidity constraint hypothesis in three ways. First, we separately examine those who do and those who do not experience a job loss to reveal generally increasing entry rates through the wealth distribution for both groups, and show why these groups should be separately analyzed. Second, we use a two‐period simulation of the Evans and Jovanovic model to shows how exogenous wealth shocks can accurately identify the presence of liquidity constraints. Third, we provide new evidence from matched Current Population Survey data to show that housing appreciation measured at the MSA‐level is a significantly positive determinant of entry into self‐employment, after controlling for changes in local economic conditions.
•We examine the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education on labor-market outcomes.•Participation in an entrepreneurship track in Tunisia was randomized among interested university ...students.•Participation led to a small increase in self-employment one year after graduation.•Overall employment rates remained unchanged, however.•The program improved business skills, but had mixed impacts on personality and entrepreneurial traits.
Entrepreneurship education has the potential to enable youth to gain skills and create their own jobs. In Tunisia, a curricular reform created an entrepreneurship track providing business training and coaching to help university students prepare a business plan. We rely on randomized assignment of the entrepreneurship track to identify impacts on students’ labor market outcomes one year after graduation. The entrepreneurship track led to a small increase in self-employment, but overall employment rates remained unchanged. Although business skills improved, effects on personality and entrepreneurial traits were mixed. The program nevertheless increased graduates’ aspirations toward the future.
The earnings of the self-employed are relatively low and volatile, a risk that exacerbated during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Using three two-weeks-apart waves of data from the Understanding ...America Study, we show that relative to wage workers, the self-employed experience greater psychological distress through self-reported financial insecurity (the chance of running out of money). Using additional cross-sectional data from the COVID-19 Household Impact Survey, we show that the self-reported chance of job loss disproportionally impacts the psychological distress of the self-employed. Together, these results underscore that the economic uncertainties induced by the COVID-19 pandemic hit the self-employed particularly harsh by deteriorating short-term psychological distress. Moreover, our study is informative about the impact of income uncertainty on psychological distress.
•Income volatility exacerbated for self-employed (s.e.) during COVID-19 pandemic.•In Sutdy 1, positive mediation for self-employed → financial insecurity → psychological distress.•In Sutdy 2, positive mediation for self-employed → chance of job loss → psychological distress.•Economic uncertainties induced by the COVID-19 deteriorated psychological distress.
Affect is increasingly studied within entrepreneurship. We develop a partial mediation model in which positive and negative dispositional affect influences entry into entrepreneurship, suggesting ...that those experiencing greater negative affect experience less job satisfaction and are more likely to enter entrepreneurship. Using a novel methodological approach to capture affective disposition, we test our model on a large panel dataset from Australia, finding support for our hypotheses. These findings provide a much-needed counterbalance to the prevailing focus in entrepreneurship on the positive consequences of positive affect and introduce affect into the study of the fundamental question of why some people but not others become entrepreneurs in the first place.
Current debates and definitions of professionalism are primarily grounded in organisations, either as employing bureaucracies or service firms, that control and structure expert labour. This is ...problematic as it neglects the many neo-professionals that are self-employed. We draw on interviews with 50 independent consultants and find that, outside of organisational boundaries, they pursue a strategy of professional fluidity. This is a relational and market-driven approach that requires a multiplicity of roles and chameleon-like tactics. As opposed to notions of collegial, organisational and corporate professionalisation, professional fluidity is a co-constructed and agentic approach where validity and legitimacy are achieved primarily through relations with clients and collaborators rather than institutions or employing organisations. Through professional fluidity we contribute to a more holistic understanding of professionalism that is sensitive to the employment mode rather than knowledge domain and develops existing notions of who is a professional. This is important for wider debates on the current and future state of professions.
Adopting an abductive approach, in this paper we use two studies to examine the relationships between financial worries and well-being amongst the self-employed during the time of the COVID-19 ...pandemic. In Study 1 of 4806 participants from the Understanding Society’s COVID-19 survey of the UK population, we find that financial worries were associated with higher mental distress for self-employed when facing reduced work hours. In Study 2, in a sample of 1794 participants from the six-country COVID study, we find that higher than expected fall in income mediates the association between self-employment and happiness. The findings have implications for research regarding financial worries, distress, and well-being of the self-employed.
•Financial worries related to the COVID-19 pandemic are positively related to mental distress.•Reduced work had a greater association with mental distress for self-employed than for employed individuals.•Self-employed individuals are more likely to expect a fall in their own income related to the COVID-19 pandemic.•Higher than expected fall in income mediates self-employment and lower happiness.
•This paper exploits oil and gas activity generated by recent technological advancements to understand the effect of localized boom and busts on self-employment.•We find a positive contemporaneous ...impact on self-employment, mainly driven by selfemployment in non-mining industries.•Self-employment is pro-cyclical, i.e. it increases during oil and gas booms and contracts during the bust.•Self-employment explains an economically meaningful share of the employment adjustment.
This paper exploits oil and gas activity generated by recent technological advancements to understand the effect of localized boom and busts on self-employment. We find a positive contemporaneous impact on self-employment, mainly driven by self-employment in non-mining industries. We also find that self-employment is pro-cyclical, meaning that self-employment increases during oil and gas booms and contracts during the bust. Finally, results suggest that self-employment explains an economically meaningful share of the employment adjustment; specifically we estimate that about 11% of the employment adjustment can be explained by self-employed workers, a group which makes up about 9% of total employment.
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