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How Vulnerable are the Self-Employed? Evidence from Ugandan Small-Scale Entrepreneurs.
- Source :
-
Journal of Development Studies . Sep2023, Vol. 59 Issue 9, p1391-1408. 18p. 3 Charts, 4 Graphs. - Publication Year :
- 2023
-
Abstract
- Due to small firm sizes and inter-linkages between household and business finances, small-scale entrepreneurs in developing countries are inherently vulnerable to temporary and permanent income shortfalls, and hence household poverty. While the International Labour Organisation (ILO) generally defines self-employment without employees as vulnerable employment, little empirical research has been done on the extent to which the self-employed are indeed vulnerable. This paper makes two main contributions: first, it operationalises the concept of vulnerability in the context of self-employment in developing countries by defining vulnerability as the risk of having business income below a living wage threshold. Secondly, it investigates the extent and correlates of vulnerability. Using a six-year balanced entrepreneur panel dataset from Kampala, Uganda, it is shown that the self-employed are heterogeneous with respect to vulnerability and observed earnings: 58–74% of the samples are classified as vulnerable in a given year and mostly earn incomes below the living wage threshold. Vulnerable entrepreneurs are shown to be significantly different from non-vulnerable entrepreneurs in several dimensions, including those that do not directly predict income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00220388
- Volume :
- 59
- Issue :
- 9
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Journal of Development Studies
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 169922790
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2023.2217996