To what extent are the self-employed satisfied? A focus on involuntariness and forms of dependency in Europe

Journal title SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO
Author/s Rossella Bozzon
Publishing Year 2023 Issue 2023/165 Language English
Pages 23 P. 201-223 File size 330 KB
DOI 10.3280/SL2023-165010
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This article aims to investigate how job satisfaction varies for different types of self-employment classified on the basis of working conditions – genuine vs. dependent – and the motivation to enter self-employment – voluntary vs. involuntary – in different institutional contexts. First, it analyses how job satisfaction is affected by the cumulative experience of different forms of economic and operational dependency, and by the involuntariness of entering self-employment. Second, it studies how differences in job satisfaction between types of self-employment are modulated by the country's entrepreneurship support environment. The analyses are based on the 2017 ad-hoc module on self-employment of the EU-LFS. Results show that the negative consequences of being self-employed on an involuntary basis, the accumulation of forms of dependency, and the lack of business opportunities all influence the job satisfaction of the self-employed without employees and small entrepreneurs.

Keywords: Job satisfaction, self-employment, dependent self-employment; involuntary self-employment, institutional context.

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Rossella Bozzon, To what extent are the self-employed satisfied? A focus on involuntariness and forms of dependency in Europe in "SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO " 165/2023, pp 201-223, DOI: 10.3280/SL2023-165010