nach oben

Small Business Economics

Erschienen in:

01.08.2016

Self-employment and the paradox of the contented female worker

verfasst von: Keith A. Bender, Kristen Roche

Erschienen in: Small Business Economics | Ausgabe 2/2016

Einloggen

Aktivieren Sie unsere intelligente Suche, um passende Fachinhalte oder Patente zu finden.

search-config

KI-gestützte Suche

Aus

Abstract

A large literature finds that the self-employed are more satisfied in their jobs. Interestingly, like in the wage and salary sector, ceteris paribus, self-employed women are found to have more satisfaction in their jobs than self-employed men, even though the gender earnings differential is higher for the self-employed. This paper examines the so-called paradox of the contented female worker for both sectors, focusing on the importance of certain job attributes and whether workers actually experience these attributes. Properly controlling for the gap between desiring and actually obtaining these attributes ‘explains’ the gender differential in job satisfaction of the self-employed.

Vorheriger Artikel Does gender matter for job creation? Business ownership and employment growth

Nächster Artikel Success in entrepreneurship: a complementarity between schooling and wage-work experience

Sie haben noch keine Lizenz? Dann Informieren Sie sich jetzt über unsere Produkte:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

Jetzt informieren

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

Jetzt informieren

Nur mit Berechtigung zugänglich

The majority of the literature in this area investigates the reasonably consistent finding that individuals are happier in self-employment compared to wage and salary work (see for example, Bradley and Roberts 2004; Kawaguchi 2008, for the U.S.; Fuchs-Schundeln 2009 for Germany; Andersson 2008, for Sweden; and Blanchflower and Oswald 1998; Benz and Frey 2004, for multiple-country studies).

We note that while some of the research (Crosby 1982; Powell and Eddleston 2008) defines the “paradox of the contented female worker” as equal job satisfaction for males and females despite the female earnings penalty, this paper follows the line of literature (Clark 1997) that defines the paradox as higher job satisfaction for females, despite the female earnings penalty.

Powell and Eddleston (2008) refute this hypothesis. They find that the gender effect in job satisfaction cannot be explained by differential inputs whereby women invest less time in their businesses and as a result perceive their subpar success as equitable. Furthermore, Millán et al. (2013) only find this negative relationship between working hours and job satisfaction in the wage and salary sector and conjecture that because self-employed workers can choose their number of working hours, they are more likely to be satisfied in their work.

Using 2003 Current Population Survey (CPS) data, Roche (2014) estimates a 61 % earnings gap between male and female median annual earnings, and a 70 % earnings gap between male and female median hourly earnings among the self-employed.

This finding is only evident with women in blue collar jobs. These women have relatively flat returns to education across the earnings distribution.

Research in Europe by Congregado et al. (2016), however, suggests that the incidence of mismatch is lower for women, even among the self-employed. Why there is this difference is not quite clear though it may have something to do with differences in the nature of self-employment across countries.

The survey question is “When thinking about a job, how important is each of the following factors to you? (salary, benefits, etc.).”

The survey question is “Thinking about your principal job…, please rate your satisfaction with that job’s… (salary, benefits, etc.).”

‘Dissatisfied’ is defined here at workers responding that they are either ‘somewhat dissatisfied’ or ‘not at all satisfied’ with the provision of the attribute. Robustness checks using just the latter answer generates qualitatively similar results in the regressions below and are available from the authors upon request. In addition, we combine into one big group all those who identify the attribute as not ‘very important’ regardless of their satisfaction with the attribute.

While focusing on a homogeneous group is useful in our analysis, we acknowledge that the findings may not extrapolate to explain the behavior of all individuals in self-employment. It is worth noting, however, that this sub-set of self-employed workers is an important group in the macroeconomy. Van Praag and van Stel (2013) find that educated entrepreneurs create more jobs and own larger firms relative to business owners without a college degree.

The regressions used here are ordered probits, given the ordinal nature of the satisfaction equations. Collapsing the job satisfaction variable into a binary variable (for very satisfied or not) and estimating the regressions using probit maximum likelihood techniques gives qualitatively similar results and are available upon request.

This variable comes from a question in the NSCG asking how closely related a worker’s job and education in their last degree is. Possible answers are: ‘closely related’, ‘somewhat related’, and ‘not at all related’ which we refer to as ‘matched’, ‘moderately mismatched’ and ‘severely mismatched’ respectively.

It should be noted, however, that this is a different educational sample than most others in the literature, as everyone in this sample has at least a bachelor’s degree and that the marginal effects are fairly small.

Having subjective well-being measures on both the right and left-hand side of the regression can generate biases since in cross sections there may be unobservable traits (e.g. overall happy nature) that may affect both sets of variables (see Hamermesh, 2004). While this would bias the estimated coefficients of the ‘Gap’ variables here, it should not bias the coefficient on the key variable of interest—the female indicator, unless there is a correlation between gender and the unobservable trait (e.g. women being ‘naturally’ happier than men) which we do not think is the case.

Andersson, P. (2008). Happiness and health: Well-being among the self-employed. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 37, 213–236. doi:10.1016/j.socec.2007.03.003.CrossRef

Baker. J. G., Craft, R. K., & Finn, M. G. (2010). Advantages and disadvantages: Job satisfaction of science and engineering baccalaureates completing doctoral verses professional degrees. Working Paper, Southern Utah University, Department of Economics.

Bender, K. A., Donohue, S. M., & Heywood, J. S. (2005). Job satisfaction and gender segregation. Oxford Economic Papers, 57, 479–496. doi:10.1093/oep/gpi015.CrossRef

Bender, K. A., & Heywood, J. S. (2006). Job satisfaction of the highly educated: The role of gender, academic tenure, and earnings. Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 53, 253–279. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9485.2006.00379.x.CrossRef

Bender, K. A., & Roche, K. (2013). Educational mismatch and self-employment. Economics of Education Review, 34, 85–95. doi:10.1016/j.econedurev.2013.01.010.CrossRef

Benz, M., & Frey, B. S. (2004). Being independent raises happiness at work. Swedish Economic Policy Review, 11, 95–134.

Benz, M., & Frey, B. S. (2008). The value of doing what you like: Evidence from the self-employed in 23 countries. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 68, 445–455. doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2006.10.014.CrossRef

Blanchflower, D. G., & Oswald, A. J. (1998). What makes an entrepreneur? Journal of Labor Economics, 16, 26–53. doi:10.1086/209881.CrossRef

Boden, R. (1996). Gender and self-employment selection: An empirical assessment. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 25, 671–682. doi:10.1016/S1053-5357(96)90046-3.CrossRef

Bradley, D. E., & Roberts, J. A. (2004). Self-employment and job satisfaction: Investigating the role of self-efficacy, depression, and seniority. Journal of Small Business Management, 42, 37–58. doi:10.1111/j.1540-627X.2004.00096.x.CrossRef

Bryson, A., Cappellari, L., & Lucifora, C. (2010). Why so unhappy? The effects of unionization on job satisfaction. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 72, 357–380. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0084.2010.00587.x.CrossRef

Carr, D. (1996). Two paths to self-employment? Women’s and men’s self-employment in the United States, 1980. Work and Occupations, 23, 26–53. doi:10.1177/0730888496023001003.CrossRef

Clark, A. J. (1997). Job satisfaction and gender: Why are women so happy at work? Labour Economics, 4, 341–372. doi:10.1016/S0927-5371(97)00010-9.CrossRef

Clark, A. E., & Oswald, A. J. (1996). Satisfaction and comparison income. Journal of Public Economics, 61, 359–381. doi:10.1016/0047-2727(95)01564-7.CrossRef

Clark, A. E., Oswald, A. J., & Warr, P. (1996). Is job satisfaction U-shaped in age? Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 69, 57–81. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8325.1996.tb00600.x.CrossRef

Congregado, E., Iglesias, J., Millán, J. M., & Román, C. (2016). Incidence, effects, dynamics and routes out of overqualification in Europe: A comprehensive analysis distinguishing by employment status. Applied Economics, 48, 411–445. doi:10.1080/00036846.2015.1083080.CrossRef

Connelly, R. (1992). Self-employment and providing child care. Demography, 29, 17–29. doi:10.2307/2061360.CrossRef

Cooper, A. C., & Artz, K. W. (1995). Determinants of satisfaction for entrepreneurs. Journal of Business Venturing, 10, 439–457. doi:10.1016/0883-9026(95)00083-K.CrossRef

Crosby, F. J. (1982). Relative deprivation and working women. New York: Oxford University Press.

Edwards, L. N., & Field-Hendrey, E. (2002). Home-based work and women’s labor force decisions. Journal of Labor Economics, 20, 170–200. doi:10.1086/323936.CrossRef

Fuchs-Schündeln, N. (2009). On preferences for being self-employed. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 71, 162–171. doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2009.03.024.CrossRef

Hamermesh, D. S. (2004). Subjective outcomes in economics. Southern Economic Journal, 71, 1–11. doi:10.2307/4135306.CrossRef

Hamilton, B. H. (2000). Does entrepreneurship pay? An empirical analysis of the returns to self-employment. Journal of Political Economy, 108(3), 604–631. doi:10.1086/262131.CrossRef

Hundley, G. (2000). Male/female earnings differences in self-employment: The effects of marriage, children, and the household division of labor. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 54, 95–114. doi:10.2307/2696034.CrossRef

Kawaguchi, D. (2008). Self-employment rents: Evidence from job satisfaction scores. Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics, 49, 35–45. http://hermes-ir.lib.hit-u.ac.jp/rs/bitstream/10086/15881/1/HJeco0490100350.pdf.

Koellinger, P., Minniti, M., & Schade, C. (2013). Gender differences in entrepreneurial propensity. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 75, 213–234. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0084.2011.00689.x.CrossRef

Lalive, R., & Stutzer, A. (2010). Approval of equal rights and gender differences in well-being. Journal of Population Economics, 23, 933–962. doi:10.1007/s00148-009-0257-4.CrossRef

Lange, T. (2012). Job satisfaction and self-employment: Autonomy or personality? Small Business Economics, 38, 165–177. doi:10.1007/s11187-009-9249-8.CrossRef

Millán, J. M., Hessels, J., Thurik, R., & Aguado, R. (2013). Determinants of job satisfaction: A European comparison of self-employed and paid employees. Small Business Economics, 40, 651–670. doi:10.1007/s11187-011-9380-1.CrossRef

Neumark, D., Wall, B., & Zhang, J. (2011). Do small businesses create more jobs? New evidence from the National Establishment Time Series. Review of Economics and Statistics, 93, 16–29. doi:10.1162/REST_a_00060.CrossRef

Parker, S. C. (2009). The economics of entrepreneurship. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.CrossRef

Powell, G. N., & Eddleston, K. A. (2008). The paradox of the contented female business owner. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 73, 24–36. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2007.12.005.CrossRef

Roche, K. (2013). Reconciling gender differences in the returns to education in self-employment: Does occupation matter? The Journal of Socio-Economics, 44, 112–119. doi:10.1016/j.socec.2013.02.022.CrossRef

Roche, K. (2014). Female self-employment in the United States: An update to 2012. Monthly Labor Review October, 2014. http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2014/article/female-self-employment-in-the-united-states-an-update-to-2012.htm.

Sloane, P. J., & Williams, H. (2000). Job satisfaction, comparison earnings, and gender. Labour, 14, 473–502. doi:10.1111/1467-9914.00142.CrossRef

Sousa-Poza, A., & Sousa-Poza, A. A. (2000). Taking another look at the gender/job-satisfaction paradox. Kyklos, 53, 135–152. doi:10.1111/1467-6435.00114.CrossRef

van Praag, M., & van Stel, A. (2013). The more business owners, the merrier? The role of tertiary education. Small Business Economics, 41(2), 335–357. doi:10.1007/s11187-012-9436-x.CrossRef

Titel: Self-employment and the paradox of the contented female worker
verfasst von: Keith A. Bender
Kristen Roche
Publikationsdatum: 01.08.2016
Verlag: Springer US
Erschienen in: Small Business Economics / Ausgabe 2/2016
Print ISSN: 0921-898X
Elektronische ISSN: 1573-0913
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-016-9731-z

Springer Professional

Abstract

Bitte loggen Sie sich ein, um Zugang zu Ihrer Lizenz zu erhalten.

Sie haben noch keine Lizenz? Dann Informieren Sie sich jetzt über unsere Produkte:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Weitere Artikel der Ausgabe 2/2016

Does management innovation pay-off in SMEs? Empirical evidence for Spanish SMEs

To be born is not enough: the key role of innovative start-ups

University support and the creation of technology and non-technology academic spin-offs

On the misery of losing self-employment

Capital structure of Chinese listed SMEs: an agency theory perspective

Does gender matter for job creation? Business ownership and employment growth