Self-Employed but Looking: A Labor Market Experiment

Philipp Koellinger, Julija Mell, Irene Pohl, Christian Roessler and Theresa Treffers

ERIM Report Series Research in Management from Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam

Abstract: We examine whether having previously been self-employed is a negative signal on the job market. In a UK field experiment where two applications of otherwise equally qualified individuals were sent out in response to the same vacancies in human resource management, we find that entrepreneurs systematically receive fewer responses than non-entrepreneurs. Empirical studies that treat market wages as the opportunity cost of remaining self-employed are therefore likely to overestimate alternative earnings to entrepreneurship.

Keywords: discrimination; entrepreneurial incomes; natural field experiment; occupational choice; self-employment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 J62 J71 L26 M00 M51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-12-06
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Journal Article: Self-employed But Looking: A Labour Market Experiment (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ems:eureri:38004

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