Utilising a large representative data set for Germany, this study contrasts absenteeism of self-employed individuals and paid employees. We find that absence from work is clearly less prevalent among the self-employed than among paid employees. Only to a small extent, this difference can be...

Most self-employed would apparently earn higher earnings if they were working in paid employment. One explanation for this 'return-to-entrepreneur-ship puzzle' could be that entrepreneurship entails substantial non-monetary bene-fits, such as autonomy, flexibility, and task variety. Utilizing...