This paper reports the findings of a time-series analysis exploring the fundamental determinants of the substantial rise in UK self-employment over the period 1972-92. The key findings are that the self-employed/wage employed income differential has a high and positive effect upon the proportion...

Job creation is perhaps the key political and economic issue of our time, yet this is one of only three papers to date to consider the nature of job creation amongst the self-employed. We develop a utility based model of self-employment which allows for the self-employed employees. The theory...

Job creation is perhaps the key political and economic issue of our time, yet this is one of only three papers to date to consider the nature of job creation amongst the self-employed. We develop a utility based model of self-employment which allows for the self-employed with employees. The...

Loan guarantee schemes are an integral part of SME policy in both developed and developing countries. Yet little has been done to evaluate such programmes, particularly in terms of their ability to correct for capital market imperfections. This paper uses individual loan data from some 42,000 UK...

The Loan Guarantee Scheme (LGS) was set up in 1981 to fill a perceived gap in the financing of smaller firms. It was designed specifically for firms who were constrained in their ability to borrow from banks by a lack of collateral. In 1996, loans issued under the scheme were at their highest...