Fuchs, Victor R. 1982. "Self-Employment and Labor Force Participation of Older Males." Journal of Human Resources 17(3):339-357.

This longitudinal analysis of the labor market behavior of older, urban white males in 1969, 1971, and 1973 focuses on changes from wage-and-salary to self-employment and changes from working to nonworking status. In each two-year transition approximately 4 percent of wage-and-salary workers switched to self-employment. Controlling for a large number of economic and demographic variables, the self-employed were significantly more likely to continue to work, partly by reducing their workweek to under 35 hours. Other significant predictors of continuing to work are good health, years of schooling, white-collar occupation, no expectation of a private pension, and a workweek longer than 50 hours. Age is also important, especially at the eligibility ages set by Social Security.

The author is Professor of Economics, Stanford University, and is a Research Associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research.
* This research was begun with financial support from the Russell Sage Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York; it was completed with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Phillip Farrell did an excellent job of transforming the original survey tapes into a usable data file, and provided valuable research assistance. The participants in the Stanford University Labor Workshop offered many helpful suggestions, and I am also grateful to Alan Blinder, Edward Lazear, Arnold Zellner, Bronwyn Hall, and two anonymous referees for helpful comments. Any opinions expressed are those of the author and not of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

© 2003 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System

US ISSN 0022-166X

Return to JHR Home Page