Does self-employment really raise job satisfaction? Adaptation and anticipation effects on self-employment and general job changes

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

Empirical analyses using cross-sectional and panel data found significantly higher levels of job satisfaction for the self-employed than for employees. We argue that by neglecting anticipation and adaptation effects estimates in previous studies might be misleading. To test this, we specify models accounting for anticipation and adaptation to self-employment and general job changes. In contrast to recent literature we find no specific long-term effect of self-employment on job satisfaction. Accounting for anticipation and adaptation to job changes in general, which includes changes between employee jobs, reduces the effect of self-employment on job satisfaction by two-thirds. When controlling for anticipation and adaptation to job changes, we find a positive anticipation effect of self-employment and a positive effect of self-employment on job satisfaction in the first years of self-employment. After 3 years, adaptation eliminates the higher satisfaction of being self-employed. According to our results, previous studies overestimate the positive long-term effects of self-employment on job satisfaction.
Translated title of the contributionErhöht eine Selbständigkeit wirklich die Arbeitszufriedenheit?: Adaptions- und Antizipationseffekte der Selbständigkeit und genereller Arbeitsplatzwechsel
Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal for Labour Market Research
Volume48
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)287-303
Number of pages17
ISSN1614-3485
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.12.2015

    Research areas

  • Economics, empirical/statistics - Job satisfaction, Self-employment, Hedonic treadmill model, Adaptation, Anticipation, Fixed effects panel estimation, German Socio-Economic Panel