Entrepreneurship in the UK

By David G. Blanchflower, Chris Shadforth. Social Science Research Network, 2007

83 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This paper examines the causes and consequences of changes in the incidence of entrepreneurship in the UK. Self-employment as a proportion of total employment is high by international standards in the UK, but the share has fluctuated over time. We examine the time series movements in self-employment, which are principally driven by financial liberalization and changes in taxation rules, especially as they relate to the construction sector which is the dominant sector. We document that the median earnings of the self-employed is less than for employees. We show that in comparison with employees the self-employed are more likely to be males; immigrants; work in construction or financial activities; hold an apprenticeship; work in London; work long hours; have high levels of job satisfaction and happiness. Consistent with the existence of capital constraints on potential and actual entrepreneurs, the estimates imply that the probability of self-employment depends positively upon whether the individual ever received an inheritance or gift. Evidence is also found that rising house prices have increased the self-employment rate. There appears to be no evidence that changes in self-employment are correlated with changes in real GDP, nor national happiness.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, Management of Technology and Innovation, Sociology and Political Science

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Citations in the corpus

Mental disorders in the entrepreneurship context : When Being Different Can Be an Advantage (2018, background): “Furthermore, studies have established that, on average, entrepreneurs work more (Eden, 1975; Bird, 1988; Harris et al., 1999) but earn less than employed people (Hamilton, 2000; Blanchflower & Shadforth, 2007; Shane, 2008; Astebro, Chen & Thompson, 2011), which could adversely impact mental health.”
The Rewards of Entrepreneurship: Exploring the Incomes, Wealth, and Economic Well–Being of Entrepreneurial Households (2011, methodology): “Given the method of calculation, it is not surprising that many studies report lower median earnings in self-employment than wages and salary earnings derived from employment (Blanchflower, 2004; Blanchflower & Shadforth, 2007; Hamilton, 2000; Parker, 1997; Parker et al., 2005).”
Fear, Unemployment and Migration (2009, unknown): “Journal compilation Royal Economic Society 2009 It is well known in the literature that capital constraints have a major impact on the ability to become and remain self-employed (Blanchflower and Oswald, 1998; Blanchflower, 2000, 2004; Blanchflower and Shadforth, 2007).”
Self-employment and entrepreneurship in urban and rural labour markets ☆ (2014, methodology): “…in the top panel of Table 1 (for ‘Independent Self-Employed’) con-ﬁrm some facts about self-employment in the UK previously obtained using the LFS (Blanchﬂower and Shadforth, 2007) or other data (e.g., Bracke et al., 2012 using BHPS): over the period spanning the mid-1990s to the late 2000s,…”