MODELING THE INCIDENCE OF SELF‐EMPLOYMENT: INDIVIDUAL AND EMPLOYMENT TYPE HETEROGENEITY

Modeling the incidence of self‐employment has traditionally proved problematic. Although the supply‐side characteristics of the self‐employed are well documented, we argue that the literature has neglected demand‐side aspects. We explore the determinants of self‐employment using the U.S. Survey of Consumer Finances. We present results from an econometric framework that allows us to model, separately and simultaneously, the influences of individual heterogeneity (i.e., supply‐side factors) and employment type heterogeneity (i.e., demand‐side factors) on the probability of self‐employment. Our findings suggest that while individual characteristics are important determinants of self‐employment, there are factors specific to the type of employment that influence self‐employment. (JEL J23, J33, C25, C10)     

Self-Employment and Wage Earning in Hungary

This paper examines the earnings determinants of the self‐employed and wage earners in Hungary in the mid‐1990s, taking into account two forms of selection: selection into working or non‐working for every individual in its sample and selection into self‐employment or wage‐earning jobs for workers only. Previous studies use switching regression to examine the returns to individual characteristics, taking into account only selection into self‐employment or wage‐earning jobs. The authors find that the estimated returns to individual characteristics when accounting for both forms of selection, differ from estimates correcting for only selection into self‐employment or wage‐earning jobs. They also find that the earnings determinants of the two sectors are not significantly different from each other.     

Self‐employment Dynamics in Australia and the Importance of State Dependence

Using Australian labour force data, both cross‐sectional and longitudinal, this study examines the dynamics of self‐employment with a particular focus on workers transitioning between self‐employment and salaried employment, and the extent to which self‐employment is the result of workers’ observed and unobserved characteristics or is instead determined by their prior employment experience itself. Probability models of self‐employment using both pooled‐panel probit and dynamic random‐effects panel probit methods are estimated, and the results are found to be extremely sensitive to the differences in the econometric methods. Once unobserved heterogeneity and initial conditions are controlled for in the dynamic model, the importance of observed characteristics in determining self‐employment is greatly diminished. Instead, workers’ past experience in self‐employment (as opposed to salaried employment) is found to have a large favourable effect on their future self‐employment prospects. The influence of this state dependence is also considerably more important in determining self‐employment outcomes than salaried ones. Despite establishing the importance of state dependence, however, what this effect implies about why individuals choose to become self‐employed or the role that self‐employment plays in the labour market remains unresolved.     

Spousal Violence and Women's Employment in India

This study analyzes women's experiences of physical or sexual spousal violence as a correlate of their employment. Based on the 2005–6 National Family Health Survey III, a nationally representative dataset from India, the analysis illustrates that married women who experienced spousal violence are more likely to be employed and are also more likely to work for cash remuneration and be employed year-round. These results may appear to suggest that spousal violence is associated with higher likelihood of married women seeking financial self-reliance. However, investigation of who decides how to spend women's earnings reveals that Indian women who experienced spousal violence are less likely to have a say in that vital decision, which suggests that women who experience spousal violence may also be more susceptible to financial exploitation. The evidence further indicates a need for caution among analyses that uniformly embrace employment as a financial empowerment tool for women.     

Factor Components of Inequality: A Cross‐Country Study

This paper uses data from the Luxembourg Income Study to examine some of the forces that have driven changes in household income inequality over the last three decades of the twentieth century. We decompose inequality for six countries (Canada, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the U.K., and the U.S.) into the three sources of market income (earnings, property income, and income from self‐employment) and taxes and transfers. Our findings indicate that although changes in the distribution of earnings are an important force behind recent trends, they are not the only one. Greater earnings dispersion has in some cases been accompanied by a reduction in the share of earnings which dampened its impact on overall household income inequality. In some countries the contribution of self‐employment income to inequality has been on the rise, while in others, increases in inequality in capital income account for a substantial fraction of the observed distributional changes.     

盈余管理的计量模型研究综述

目前存在三类盈余管理计量模型：(1)总应计利润模型；(2)具体应计利润模型；(3)盈余及应计利润分布模型。本文对这三类模型进行了分析和研究,指出当前的盈余管理计量模型还存在许多问题,尤其是在研究处于转轨经济时期的中国盈余管理问题时。同时,提出发展一种更有效的计量盈余管理模型仍然是业界重要的工作。     

Social identity and perceived income adequacy

Economists are increasingly interested in subjective well‐being, but the economic literature on perceptions of income adequacy, which is one of the factors that shape subjective well‐being, is little. Our paper fills this lacuna. We utilize nationally representative data on perceptions of amounts considered as remunerative earnings from self‐employment in India and examine how these are earnings shaped by social identity, namely, caste. We also investigate if institutional change such as the introduction of an employment guarantee scheme alters these perceptions. Finally, we examine the relationship between caste identity and actual earnings. We find that caste identity does shape both perceptions of income adequacy and actual earnings: lower‐ranked groups perceive lower amounts as being remunerative and also earn lower amounts. Further, the employment guarantee scheme alters self‐perceptions differentially for different caste groups, but in more nuanced ways than our ex‐ante beliefs.     

TAXES,HEALTH INSURANCE,AND WOMEN'S SELF‐EMPLOYMENT

I examine whether the availability of health coverage through the spouse's health plan influences a married woman's decision to become self‐employed. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA86) introduced a tax subsidy for the self‐employed to purchase their own health insurance. I test whether this “natural” experiment induced more women without spousal health insurance coverage to select into self‐employment. The most conservative difference‐in‐difference estimates based on an analysis of employed women indicate that the incidence of self‐employment among single women rose by 10% in the post‐TRA86 period, while a multinomial specification based on a sample of both employed and nonemployed women suggests that the increase was about 13%. (JEL J0, J3, I1)     

高校毕业生与中、高职毕业生就业情况比较分析

目前,我国高校毕业生就业形势十分严峻,这已成为社会各界普遍关注的问题。造成这种状况的原因除中国人受传统观念的影响外,还有高校大规模扩招、社会对高校毕业生提供的就业岗位不足等,因此,应通过加强思想教育、扩大就业岗位的供给等举措来解决这一社会难题。     

THE IMPACT OF INSURANCE SUBSIDIES ON SELF‐EMPLOYMENT: DO STATE NON‐GROUP HEALTH INSURANCE REGULATIONS MATTER?

This paper tests whether the effect of tax‐based subsidies for self‐employed health insurance on the level of self‐employment differs with the type of non‐group insurance regulatory regime at the state level. Using a panel of tax returns from 1999 to 2004, we estimate fixed effects instrumental variable regressions for the probability of being self‐employed, allowing the effect of the after‐tax price of self‐employed health insurance to differ by regulatory regime. Our results suggest that states with community rating and guaranteed issue regulations had significantly smaller increases in the fraction of taxpayers reporting some amount of self‐employment income as a result of a decrease in the after‐tax price of self‐employed health insurance. However, there is suggestive evidence that heavily regulated states experienced a larger increase in exclusive self‐employment, particularly among older taxpayers. (JEL J24, H24, I18)     

The effect of temporary help jobs on employment volatility

This study investigates the impact of temporary agency employment on employment volatility outside the sector. Making use of econometric volatility models, we find that enhancing numerical flexibility by temporary agency employment decreases employment volatility of incumbent workers. However, not all subgroups are benefitting equally. While prime‐age permanent workers gain considerably from higher flexibility, young workers, migrants and low‐skilled workers not only are overrepresented among the temps but also do not gain when employed outside the sector.     

The impact of recent mental health changes on employment: new evidence from longitudinal data

This study uses longitudinal data and four different measures of mental health to tease out the impact of psychiatric disorder onsets and recoveries on employment outcomes. Results suggest that developing a mental health problem leads to a significant increase in the probability of transitioning to non-employment, while a recovery increases the probability of return to work among the not employed with a mental health problem. No consistent effect was found on hours worked and earnings. Research and policy attention is needed with respect to early interventions such as job retention programmes to help workers with mental health problems remain employed as well as interventions that may lead to recovery and return to work. More research is needed especially with data and models that can differentiate between the effects of mental health onsets and recoveries on employment exit and return to work transitions.     

Why does the investment rate not increase? Capital accumulation and stabilization policy in the 1990s and 2000s in Brazil

The stabilization of inflation was conquered in the mid-1990s, but since then the Brazilian economy has not shown a stable growth trend. This article discusses how the maintenance of a high interest rate in Brazil has affected growth through its impact on investment decision. In a macroeconomic environment with a relatively high degree of uncertainty, decisions to accumulate capital rely heavily on retained earnings and are negatively affected by the persistent high level of interest rates. Our econometric exercise reveals that the interest rate is the most important variable to explain the investment rate, and that financialization negatively impacts physical capital accumulation.     

Good skills in bad times: Cyclical skill mismatch and the long-term effects of graduating in a recession

We show that cyclical skill mismatch, defined as mismatch between the skills supplied by college graduates and skills demanded by hiring industries, is an important mechanism behind persistent career loss from graduating in recessions. Using Norwegian data, we find a strong countercyclical pattern of skill mismatch among college graduates. Initial labor market conditions have a declining but persistent effect on match quality and skill mismatch early in their careers. Match quality of the first employment may explain up to half of the short-term and most of the long-term earnings loss from graduating in a recession.     

CASUAL EMPLOYMENT IN AUSTRALIA: INCIDENCE AND DETERMINANTS

Casual employment as a fraction of the employed labour force has expanded substantially during the period 1984 through 1993. This paper examines the incidence of this growth by gender, sector and industry. Separate shift-share and econometric procedures analyse ABS pooled time-series, cross-section data for the period 1984 through 1992. The shift-share analysis decomposes intra-industry growth. The fixed effects estimation results suggest recent casual employment growth in Australia is demand determined.     

试论职业指导在当前促进职教师资毕业生就业工作中的作用和重要性

当前,高校毕业生就业形势异常严峻,再加上大学生对自我很难有一个全面客观的认识、个人与社会需求之间供需失衡脱节等诸多因素,造成了大量毕业生难以就业、人才过剩的社会现象。以职教师资本科生为例,阐述拓宽职业教育就业途径、开展职业指导对促进高校毕业生就业的作用和重要性。     

Entrepreneurship in post‐conflict transition1

We examine new self‐employment entry and its viability in Bosnia and Herzegovina, using a rich household survey for the years 2001–2004. We find that wealthier households are more likely to engage in viable self‐employment and create employment suggesting an important role for financing constraints. Specifically, although having an existing bank relationship is not significantly related to the entry decision, it is positively related to the survival for new entrepreneurs and their employment creation. We also find a non‐linear relationship between remittances and entry in that individuals not receiving remittances are more likely to enter self‐employment; but, if they do receive them, the likelihood of starting a business increases in the fraction of wealth received from domestic remittances. Finally, people working in the informal sector are more likely to become viable entrepreneurs, particularly those provided with loans from micro‐credit organizations. These findings support the perception of the informal sector as an incubator for formal self‐employment in the early years of transition.     

Husbands,Wives, and Housework: Graduates of Stanford and Tokyo Universities

Barbara Bergmann argues that economic gender equity requires equity not only in paid employment, but also in household work. We examine the household task arrangements of a sample of married 1981 graduates of Stanford and Tokyo (Todai) Universities, about a decade after their graduation. No less than 43 percent of Stanford graduates shared household tasks about equally with their spouse, a much higher sharing rate than for the whole U.S. population. However, only 12 percent of Todai women and 8 percent of Todai men had egalitarian household task arrangements, a sharing rate about equal to that of the whole Japanese population. Holding other variables constant, Stanford men who did at least half of household tasks paid an earnings penalty of about 10 percent. Women who did more than half of household tasks did not pay an earnings penalty. Our examination of task arrangements among dual-career couples provides support for bargaining power theories of the division of household tasks, but suggests that societal ideology plays a critical role in defining the scope for bargaining.     

Work-limiting health,earnings, and employment: an analysis with SIPP data

ABSTRACT

This study examines the role of work-limiting health conditions on employed people’s earnings, employment status, and working hours, and distinguishes between the different degree and severity of predictable shocks. Using data from the 2004 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), we evaluate the impact of any work-limiting health condition as well as a subset of health conditions that appear to arrive largely exogenously on post-onset earnings, employment, and working hours. We find that people who report being employed and later experience the onset of any work-limiting health condition tend to have lower subsequent earnings, a reduced probability of being employed, and fewer working hours per month compared to those who remain healthy. The adverse impact is even greater for people with health conditions that arrive less predictably. We use a difference-in-differences regression model with person and year fixed effects as the primary estimation method.     

Gender gap in self‐employment: The role of risk attitudes

This paper examines the link between the willingness to take risk and the gender gap in self‐employment in the transition economy, where for decades entrepreneurship was considered a crime. Using rich data on risk preferences and entrepreneurial activities, we show that male–female risk tolerance differential is the main determinant of the gender gap in self‐employment in Ukraine. The decomposition results indicate that up to 38% of the gap can be attributed to this factor. Robustness tests support the validity of the baseline findings by suggesting that the results are not confounded by such factors as being unemployed before starting a current job, having a self‐employed household member, or living in a relatively wealthy household before transitioning to self‐employment.