Drug Dealing and Legitimate Self-Employment
Theoretical models of self-employment posit that attitudes toward risk, entrepreneurial ability, and preferences for autonomy are central to the individual's decision between self-employment and wage/salary work. I provide indirect evidence on this hypothesis by examining the relationship between drug dealing as a youth and legitimate self-employment in later years using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. I find that drug dealers are 11%21% more likely to choose self-employment than non-drug-dealers, all else equal. After ruling out a few alternative explanations, I interpret these results as providing indirect evidence supporting the hypothesis.
Year of publication: |
2002
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Authors: | Fairlie, Robert W. |
Published in: |
Journal of Labor Economics. - University of Chicago Press. - Vol. 20.2002, 3, p. 538-567
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Publisher: |
University of Chicago Press |
Saved in:
Online Resource
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