PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to reassess whether individuals choose to become self‐employed for “pull” or “push” reasons, to discuss and describe ambiguities in this distinction, with focus on differences between men and women, and draw conclusions for further conceptual work.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reviews current literature, from which specific hypotheses are developed. For illustration and evaluation secondary analysis is undertaken of an existing large‐scale data source available in UK Quarterly Labour Force Surveys over the period 1999‐2001.FindingsIt was found that 86 per cent state only a single reason for self‐employment. Response patterns differ significantly between men and women. Independence is the most commonly cited motivation but 22 per cent of women cite family commitments. “Push” motivations may account for as much as 48 per cent depending on interpretation. Men who report two or more factors tend to combine “pull” factors, but women tend to combine “push” with “pull”.Research limitations/implicationsRespondents may display recall bias. Potential ambiguity in the way in which respondents may interpret particular motivations points to the need for future detailed qualitative research, and questionnaire item development. Further work is recommended to assess whether conclusions hold in recent recessionary economic conditions.Practical implicationsClarity between “push” and “pull” factors is important in the design of entrepreneurship policy, especially during a recession. Further work is needed to provide this clarity to inform policy design.Originality/valueFew previous studies investigate reasons for choosing entrepreneurship using large, population‐generalisable data, and do not consider the conceptual ambiguities inherent in categorising motivations as either “pull” or “push”.

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Abstract Recent theoretical developments relating to investment under uncertainty have highlighted the importance of irreversibility for the timing of investment expenditures and their expected returns. This has subsequently stimulated a growing empirical literature which examines uncertainty and threshold effects on investment behaviour. This paper presents a review of this literature. A variety of methods have been used to investigate the empirical implication of irreversibility in investment, the majority focusing on the relationship between investment flows and proxy measures of uncertainty. A general conclusion is that increased uncertainty, at both aggregate and disaggregate levels, leads to lower investment rates. This suggests that there is an irreversibility effect, under which greater uncertainty raises the value of the "option" to delay a commitment to investment. This effect appears to dominate any positive impact on investment arising from the fact that greater uncertainty, under certain circumstances, increases the marginal profitability of capital. The methods used raise a number of issues which call into question the reliability of the findings, and these are addressed in the paper. However, if such irreversibility effects are present, then their omission from traditional investment models casts doubt on the efficacy of such specifications. JEL Classification: D81, D92, E22 Terms of use: Documents in

This paper is about whether transitions into self-employment are preceded by well-formed entrepreneurial aspirations, and the extent to which aspiration and actual transition are associated with the same factors. It analyses data from a British general purpose longitudinal survey, allowing the tracking of stated entrepreneurial aspiration through to self-employment transition one or more years later. The majority of transitions are not preceded by a statement of aspiration a year earlier and therefore many new ventures may be hastily conceived. Studies which identify nascent entrepreneurs from a sample of the general population and subsequently trace new venture creation may therefore miss significant numbers of entrepreneurial transitions. Although first noted by Katz (1990), this issue has attracted relatively little research attention since. The paper adopts the novel approach of allowing unexplained heterogeneity in the formation of aspirations to be correlated with that in the self-employment transition choice. Aspirations are associated with displacement factors such as low job satisfaction, but this finding is not translated into an association with transitions. Aspirations are not found to be associated with intentional activity such as active saving, or with correlates of personal efficacy such as financial wealth and educational background. Aspirations display regional variation with some regions having higher levels of aspiration that do not translate into a higher start-up rate. These findings reinforce a strong conclusion that policy should address the level of preparedness for new business start-up amongst aspiring entrepreneurs.

Henley, A. G. (1998). Residential Mobility, Housing Equity and the Labour Market. Economic Journal, 108 (447), 414-427UK commentators have noted that the UK housing market may hinder labour market flexibility. The present paper uses UK household longitudinal data (BHPS) for the early 1990s, and estimates single and competing risk discrete time duration models of residence duration to investigate the impact of negative housing equity on residential moves. Strong evidence for an adverse impact on mobility is found, along with results to suggest that the home-owners do not move in response to changing labour market conditions. Negative equity in the early 1990s therefore exacerbated housing market related rigidities in the job matching processPeer reviewe

We examine the impact of housing capital gains on savings behaviour during the 1990s British housing market cycle using microdata from the British Household Panel Survey and county-level house price data. We condition the models on household real financial capital gains using Family Resources Survey data. We find a marginal propensity to consume out of housing wealth of between 0.01 and 0.03, depending on specification. Among our novel findings are asymmetric behaviour between periods of house price rises and falls, with stronger consumption response during periods of house price increases, and a disproportionate impact on saving if the household has negative housing equity.

A range of alternative empirical definitions of informal activity have been employed in the literature. Choice of definition is often dictated by data availability. Different definitions may imply very different conceptual understandings of informality. This paper investigates the degree of congruence between three definitions of informality based on employment contract registration, on social security protection and the characteristics of the employer and employment using Brazilian household survey data for the period 1992 to 2004. 64% of the economically active are informal according to at least one definition, but only 40% are informal according to all three. Steady compositional changes have been taking place amongst informal workers, conditional on definition. Multivariate analysis reveals that the conditional impact of particular factors (demographic, educational attainment, family circumstances) on the likelihood of informality varies considerably from one definition to another. Results suggest growing heterogeneity within the informal sector. Informal activity may be as much associated with entrepreneurial dynamism as with any desire to avoid costly contract registration and social protection. However there is no a priori reason for entrepreneurial activity to be unprotected. Results in the paper confirm this. Consequently definitions of informality based on occupation and employer size seem the most arbitrary in practice even if conceptually well-founded.

Religion cannot be ignored in assessing the range of cultural and institutional influences that impact on entrepreneurial activity. This article integrates key themes from sociology of religion in the context of emerging ideas about religion and entrepreneurship in order to highlight key research questions. New institutional theory is discussed as a potentially useful lens for viewing the range of means through which religious expression and institutions might support entrepreneurship. A macro-level empirical investigation of societal indicators of religious affiliation and regulation of religion alongside Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data highlights particular data correlations and mediating influences. A significant association between entrepreneurial activity evangelical/Pentecostal Christian religious affiliation is found; along with evidence that the impact of religion on entrepreneurship is mediated through pluralism and regulation. In discussing these findings further the paper proposes a more integrated conceptual framework for understanding the link between religious drivers and entrepreneurship, alongside institutional mediation. It is hoped that this might for the basis for further research, focusing on individual experience rather than aggregate associations and exploring in further the depth the mediating impact of institutional arrangements.