The Self-Employment Choice in Portugal: How Different are Women from Men

Aurora Galego

Economics Working Papers from University of Évora, Department of Economics (Portugal)

Abstract: Female self-employment has been increasing steadily over the last years in many countries. However, not much is know about women?s decision to become self-employed, especially in Europe. Some few studies typically conclude that most women choose self-employment because it offers more flexibility to combine work and family responsibilities or because of discrimination. Portugal displays one of the highest rates of self-employment in Europe and is one of the countries where the number of self-employed women has increased more. This paper studies gender differences in the determinants of self-employment in Portugal. Unlike other countries, there is no evidence that women choose self-employment because of family reasons. However, there are some suggestions that the choice of self-employment is driven by economic necessity, particularly in the case of women.

Keywords: Occupational Choice; Self-employment; Gender differences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J16 J23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 18 pages
Date: 2006
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ent and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:evo:wpecon:3_2006

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