Self-employment of older Americans: do recessions matter?

Amelia Biehl (), Tami Gurley-Calvez () and Brian Hill

Small Business Economics, 2014, vol. 42, issue 2, 297-309

Abstract: As high unemployment rates linger following the latest recession, job opportunities can be sparse, especially for older workers. This might prompt older Americans to seek out opportunities in self-employment. Alternatively, recession-related decreases in economic activity might make self-employment less attractive. Using the Health and Retirement Study, we find that unemployed respondents are more likely to enter self-employment and that these decisions are clearly affected by recessions, although the effects differ by recession and gender. Unlike men, women’s self-employment decisions are very sensitive to other sources of household income, and women are less likely to become self-employed the deeper the recession. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Recession; Older Americans; Economics of gender; Unemployment; L26; J14; J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11187-013-9479-7

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