Does self-employment contribute to national happiness?

Entrepreneurship and Human Development: An International Analysis

“…The result obtained on the negative incidence of necessity entrepreneurship in the dimensions of human development measured by the MHDI and SPI is a novel contribution to research that has found that this type of entrepreneurial activity does not favor economic growth (Acs, 2006). Moreover, as necessity entrepreneurship is not chosen voluntarily, it can cause dissatisfaction in those who perform it (Harbi & Grolleau, 2012) and negatively affect happiness (Binder & Coad, 2016;Block et al, 2015).…”

“…Similarly, according to Harbi and Grolleau (2012), the advantages of a person working on his or her own account include achieving independence and flexibility of time. However, when the individual is working on his or her own account involuntarily, in evaluating the results of the activity, the negative impacts outweigh the positive.…”

Small business owners and health

“…And indeed, work satisfaction is recorded to be higher for business owners than for employed (Van der Zwan et al 2018;Naughton 1987;Blanchflower and Oswald 2004;Frey 2004, 2008;Andersson 2008;Block and Koellinger 2009;Lange 2009;El Harbi and Grolleau 2012;Coad 2013, 2014;Kapoor 2001). The same is true for life satisfaction (Naughton 1987;Blanchflower and Oswald 1998;Kapoor 2001) although elsewhere some inconclusive results are found (Blanchflower and Oswald 2004;Block and Koellinger 2009;Andersson 2008).…”

How Satisfied are the Self-Employed? A Life Domain View

“…Looking at European countries, Blanchflower (2004) fails to find overly strong e↵ects of self-employment on life satisfaction (only for subgroups, selfemployment is significantly related to life satisfaction; and strongly depending on the data set used). Evidence about this relationship is scant (Harbi and Grolleau, 2012;Andersson, 2008, p. 231).…”