A Longitudinal Analysis of Early Self-employment in the National Longitudinal Surveys...

"The specific goals of this study are: (a) to provide new empirical findings regarding the dynamics of self- employment that underpin individual entrepreneurship during early adult work life; and (b) to document generational changes in self-employment patterns in early adult work life between two cohorts born in the second half of the twentieth century. These goals are addressed utilizing the two National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth, the 1979 Cohort (NLSY79) and the 1997 Cohort (NLSY97), which offer unparalleled breadth and depth of information on economic activity, as well as on personal and family backgrounds, and allow detailed longitudinal investigation of self-employment activities.

Our empirical inquiry is guided by a set of research questions that are designed to address the goals noted above, including:

• Does the level of self-employment over time or at a given point in time vary by individual and family characteristics and early labor-market experience?
• Do economic characteristics, measured in terms of income and net worth, alter the probability of self-employment?
• Are economic outcomes, such as income and net worth, affected by the extent of prior self-employment?
• Are there differential patterns of early self-employment among two generations of Americans born in the late twentieth century?" (p.i) (Abstractor: Author)

Full publication title: A Longitudinal Analysis of Early Self-employment in the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (NLSY)

• The demographic characteristics differ considerably between respondents who reported self-employment and those who did not. • Early exposure to self-employment increases individuals’ engagement in self-employment during the ensuing early- to mid-career years. • Measure of financial resources is positively correlated with individuals’ engagement. • Total self-employment years are positively correlated with economic outcomes, measured in terms of family income, own income, and family net worth. • There are notable differences and similarities in the self-employment experiences in the early stage of work life between individuals born in 1960-1962 and those born 20 years later in 1980-1982. These include: -The younger cohort has much higher self-employment rates than the older cohort had when the two are compared by age 23. This increase is driven largely by increases in self-employment by Black and Hispanic workers, and to a lesser extent by female workers. -The mechanisms through which demographics affect employer-based employment rates seem to work somewhat differently for self-employment rates. Such characteristics as race, gender, and ethnicity do not always exhibit the same patterns for self-employment and employer-based employment. (p.i-ii) (Abstractor: Author)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2010
• Author(s): Abe, Yasuyo; Betesh, Hannah; Datta, A. Rupa
• Organizational Author(s): Berkeley Policy Associates; NORC at University of Chicago
• Funding Source: U.S. Small Business Administration
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies