Self‐employment and local economic performance: Evidence from US counties* |
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Authors: | Anil Rupasingha Stephan J. Goetz |
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Affiliation: | 1. Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, 1000 Peachtree Street, N.E., Atlanta, GA 30309‐4470 USA (e‐mail: anil.rupasingha@atl.frb.org);2. The Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, The Pennsylvania State University, 7E Armsby Building, University Park, PA 16802‐5602 USA (e‐mail: sgoetz@psu.edu) |
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Abstract: | This study explores the relationship between self‐employment and income growth, employment growth, and change in poverty in metro and non‐metro areas in the United States using county‐level panel data. We investigate the impact of the relative size of the self‐employment sector measured by the share of non‐farm proprietorships (NFPs) in total full and part‐time employment on three key economic performance indicators. We first estimate an income growth model to analyse the effects of self‐employment on income growth. Then we investigate the independent effects of self‐employment on employment growth and changes in family poverty rates. Our results indicate that higher self‐employment rates are associated with statistically significant increases over time in income and employment growth, and reductions in poverty rates in non‐metro counties. We find similar effects on metro county income and employment, but not on poverty dynamics. |
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Keywords: | J21 L26 O18 R11 Self‐employment non‐farm proprietorship income growth employment growth poverty spatial effects |
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