Self-Employment and Parenthood: Exploring the Impact of Partners, Children and Gender

28 Pages Posted: 21 Jun 2007

See all articles by Ruta Aidis

Ruta Aidis

University College London; University of Amsterdam - Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB)

C.M.M.P. Wetzels

University of Amsterdam - Amsterdam School of Economics (ASE); IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Date Written: May 2007

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between self-employment, partner's employment, the household and children on a mother's and father's probability to choose self-employment. Few studies are available on this topic and their analysis is mainly limited to the female role in the North American context. In this study, we examine the influence of personal characteristics, household and labor market characteristics for both mothers and fathers in a family context and their probability to be self-employed as compared to parents who have chosen formal, gainful employment. We focus on the data from the European context comparing results from Spain, Italy and the Netherlands. Using these large and comparable data sets, our logit model estimates show that mothers who choose self-employment do not work fewer working hours than those in gainful employment. Similar results were found for fathers in Spain and Italy. Perhaps the most striking result is the very strong significance of the partner's self-employed status on the choice for self-employment for both mothers and fathers in all three countries. Other effects such as human capital, household income, presence of grandmothers and number of young children indicate country differences.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, parenthood, self-employment, gender, Europe

JEL Classification: M13, J24, J13, J16

Suggested Citation

Aidis, Ruta and Wetzels, Cecile, Self-Employment and Parenthood: Exploring the Impact of Partners, Children and Gender (May 2007). IZA Discussion Paper No. 2813, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=995500 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.995500

Ruta Aidis

University College London ( email )

Gower Street
London
United Kingdom

University of Amsterdam - Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) ( email )

Roetersstraat 11
Amsterdam, 1018 WB
Netherlands
+ 31 20 525 4011 (Phone)
+ 31 20 525 4254 (Fax)

Cecile Wetzels (Contact Author)

University of Amsterdam - Amsterdam School of Economics (ASE) ( email )

Roetersstraat 11
Amsterdam, North Holland 1018 WB
Netherlands

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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