The nature of self-employment: how does gender matter?

Abstract

This paper analyses female and male entrepreneurship and the differences between them in Finland. The female self-employment rate is clearly lower than that of male self-employment in Finland. The paper shows that differing behaviour accounts for differing rates of self-employment between females and males. The predicted earnings differential between self-employment and paid employment has a divergent effect on the probabilities of self-employment. For males, it is positive (as expected). For females, it has no effect, which accentuates the other motives they have for self-employment. Both spouse and family are found to have bigger effects on female self-employment than on male self-employment. Yet, personal characteristics are behind entrepreneurship for both sexes. Regional characteristics are more important for male than female self-employment. The analysis is based on a structural probit model and a large register-based data set representing a 7% random sample of all Finns in 2001.