Working Paper No. 1369

Ethnic Background and the Value of Self-Employment Experience: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment

Published: November 19, 2020Pages: 24Keywords: Self-employment; Wage-employment; Randomized experiment; Discrimination; Labor market outcomesJEL-codes: J15; J24; J71; L26

Ethnic Background and the Value of Self-Employment Experience: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment Lina Aldén, Spencer Bastani and Mats Hammarstedt

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 regardless of their ethnic background, and independently of whether we consider applicants with experience solely from self-employment, or applicants with a mix of experience from wage-employment and self-employment. For female applicants, the results are less clear-cut. Our findings provide input into the discussion about the impact of self-employment on the chances for natives and immigrants to obtain wage-employment.

Reference:
Aldén, Lina, Spencer Bastani and Mats Hammarstedt (2020), "Ethnic Background and the Value of Self-Employment Experience: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment". IFN Working Paper No. 1369. Stockholm: Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN).

Spencer Bastani

Contact

Ph: 046 (0)18 471 7077
Mob: +46 (0)731 50 77 51
spencer.bastani@ifau....

Mats Hammarstedt

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Ph: +46 772 288 000
Mob: +46 730 619 194
mats.hammarstedt@lnu.se

Interdisciplinary European Studies

The European Union and the Return of the Nation State

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This book explores the complex and ever-changing relationship between the European Union and its member states. The recent surge in tension in this relationship has been prompted by the actions of some member state governments as they question fundamental EU values and principles and refuse to implement common decisions seemingly on the basis of narrowly defined national interests.

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