Explaining Preferences and Actual Involvement in Self-Employment: New Insights into the role of Gender

Roy Thurik, Ingrid Verheul () and Isabel Grilo

No H200803, Scales Research Reports from EIM Business and Policy Research

Abstract: This paper investigates why women’s self-employment rates are consistently lower than those of men. It has three focal points. It discriminates between the preference for self-employment and actual involvement in self-employment using a two (probit) equation model. It makes a systematic distinction between different ways in which gender influences the preference for and actual involvement in self-employment (mediation and moderation). It includes perceived ability as a potential driver of self-employment next to risk attitude, self-employed parents and other sociodemographic drivers. A representative data set of more than 8,000 individuals from 29 countries (25 EU member states, US, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) is used (the 2004 Flash Eurobarometer survey). The findings show that women’s lower preference for becoming self-employed plays an important role in explaining their lower involvement in self-employment and that a gender effect remains that may point at gender-based obstacles to entrepreneurship.

Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2010-04-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-ent and nep-lab
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Working Paper: Explaining Preferences and Actual Involvement in Self-Employment: New Insights into the Role of Gender (2008)
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