Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/87046 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper No. 10-067/3
Publisher: 
Tinbergen Institute, Amsterdam and Rotterdam
Abstract: 
This paper uses panel data from the pan-European SHARE survey to study labor market behavior of older male self-employed vis-a-vis wage employed workers. We find the self-employed to work longer hours, to be more flexible in their hours allocation, and to retire later in all countries. We relate these differences in observed behavior to individual characteristics, economic resources, and to documented cross-national variation in labor market and social security institutions. Differential incentives matter for the retirement behavior of the self-employed. We also provide evidence of the self-employed not wanting to retire as early as possible, and contrast these expectation data with realized retirement transitions. The overall picture that emerges is that older self-employed have a very strong labor market attachment and they use their degrees of freedom to work more and retire later accordingly.
Subjects: 
self-employment
labor supply
retirement
pensions
Europe
institutions
JEL: 
J14
J22
J26
L26
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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