Poor countries have low rates of wage employment and high rates of self-employment. This paper shows that they also have high rates of unemployment relative to wage employment, and that self-employment is particularly high where the unemployment-wage employment ratio is high. I interpret high...

Poor countries have low wage employment and high self-employment. This paper shows that they also have high unemployment relative to wage employment, and that self-employment increases with this ratio. To understand the sources of these patterns, I build a search and matching model with choice...

We investigate retirement decisions of the self-employed in the Netherlands using administrative data. We focus on the time period around which individuals reach the statutory retirement age (SRA, 65 years in most cases). After the statutory retirement age, each Dutch resident receives the Old...

This research report explores the nature and character of home-based work and the more narrow concept of homework in Ghana. As labour statistics on home-based work and homework are absent, the research draws on interviews with 124 individuals working in agro-processing, arts and crafts, industry...

This paper examines the effect of wealth on labour market behaviour. Providing convincing evidence on this relationship is challenging since wealth and labour supply may be endogenously determined. We overcome this by looking at wealth shocks in the form of inheritances, distinguishing between...

This paper investigates whether the female self-employed are more affected by the COVID-19 crisis than the male self-employed using longitudinal data four months following the first 'lockdown' in the UK. We specifically test the role of family/social, economic and psychological factors on...