Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/25654 
Year of Publication: 
2007
Series/Report no.: 
Jena Economic Research Papers No. 2007,089
Publisher: 
Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena
Abstract: 
This paper investigates the dynamic relationship between self-employment and unem-ployment rates. On the one hand, high unemployment rates may lead to start-up activity of self-employed individuals (the “refugee” effect). On the other hand, higher rates of self-employment may indicate increased entrepreneurial activity reducing unemployment in subsequent periods (the “entrepreneurial” effect). This paper introduces a new two-equation vector autoregression model capable of reconciling these ambiguities and es-timates it for data from 23 OECD countries between 1974 and 2002. The empirical re-sults confirm the existence of two distinct relationships between unemployment and self-employment: the “refugee” and “entrepreneurial” effects. We also find that the “entrepre-neurial” effects are considerably stronger than the “refugee” effects.
Subjects: 
entrepreneurship
self-employment
unemployment
JEL: 
J23
J64
L26
L53
M13
O11
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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