Starting a business is one way out of unemployment for many people. Having a small pool of job applicants may, however, affect the quality of manpower available to employers. This paper reports the results of an experimental study that examined whether job-seekers discriminate against...

In this paper, we use a randomized field experiment in Sweden to investigate how self-employment experience is valued in the labor market. We find that self-employment experience negatively impacts the probability of receiving a positive response from employers. For male applicants, this holds...