Earnings,Effort, and Work Flexibility of Self-Employed Women and Men: The Case of St. Croix County,Wisconsin

Data collected on self-employed women and men in one county allow examination of work effort, housework effort, housework hours, and preference for flexible work on earnings. Regressions indicate housework effort of self-employed women contributes to their lower earnings. Housework hours do not supporting the view women select self-employment to find flexible work. Housework hours do reduce the earnings of self-employed men, which could reflect their stronger commitment to housework combined with less flexible work. A Oaxaca decomposition suggests less tenure and greater housework effort are important contributors to lower earnings of self-employed women. Ranges that measure earnings may contribute to the insignificance of work effort, normalized work effort, and preference for flexible work hours. (J16, J23)

Labor market transitions of immigrants with emphasis on marginalization and self-employment

In developed countries, immigrants are more likely to be nonemployed and self-employed compared to natives. Based on register data of male immigrants in Denmark, we performed a detailed investigation of the immigrant–native difference in transition patterns across labor market states. We find that a high proportion of immigrants from non-Western countries tend to be marginalized relative to natives, and they tend to use self-employment to escape marginalization.

Nomenclature and harmonised criteria for the self-employment categorisation. An approach pursuant to a systematic review of the literature

This paper presents the review and discussion of terminology and criteria describing the self-employment phenomenon. We attempt to give a conceptually and empirically grounded categorisation of self-employment forms for this heterogeneous and constantly changing group. An abundance of definitions and conceptualisations of self-employment exists and makes data collection and statistical comparisons for this group unreliable, if at all meaningful. In order to produce sound, reliable comparative studies on the self-employed population, researchers will eventually be required to agree on a universal and internationally consistent definitions and a structured categorisation. Such determinations are also essential for practical purposes such as establishing or enforcing the taxation regulations.In our study, the systematic analysis of selected data from 253 various publications was performed. We gave an overview of different approaches to the problem of identification and differentiation of self-employed. An ordered list of criteria used for these purposes has been compiled. We concluded that the set of five categories with most salient characteristics reflects well the composition of the self-employed population: freelancers (ipros), innovators, traditional small business owners (including farmers), dependent self-employed and hybrid self-employed. We discuss the perspective on further studies and need for integration of research approaches in view of increasing role of the new forms of self-employment in global economy.