The Experience of Self-Employment Among Young People: An Exploratory Analysis of 28 Low- to Middle-Income Countries.
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| Title: | The Experience of Self-Employment Among Young People: An Exploratory Analysis of 28 Low- to Middle-Income Countries. |
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| Authors: | Burchell, Brendan J.1 bb101@cam.ac.uk, Coutts, Adam P.1 |
| Source: | American Behavioral Scientist. Feb2019, Vol. 63 Issue 2, p147-165. 19p. |
| Subject Terms: | *Young adults, *Youth, *Government policy, Self-employment, Low-income countries, Middle-income countries, Employment policy, Quality of work life |
| Abstract: | Youth unemployment has become the global "wicked" policy issue for governments and multilateral agencies with many regions experiencing endemically high levels. In response, governments and international organizations have introduced more active labor market interventions to address youth unemployment. Self-employment and entrepreneurship programs are seen as the key mechanisms to reduce unemployment, welfare dependency, and poverty. We use the International Labour Organization's 2012 School-to-Work Transition Survey from 28 developing countries to provide new evidence of young people's experience of job quality and associated working conditions in self-employment. We find that self-employment is not necessarily a favorable employment status in terms of the economic and social benefits it provides for young people. In countries often characterized by limited formal employment opportunities, a large informal sector and depressed local labor markets, self-employment can be seen as the only realistic way many young people can generate an income. Entry into self-employment can be more accurately described as a pragmatic coping mechanism by the young person and their family to get by rather than as evidence of entrepreneurship and a pathway to get on in terms of social mobility and poverty alleviation. We find little evidence that young people are making utility-maximizing decisions concerning their employment status. Furthermore, we argue that if youth employment policies overlook the importance and role of kinship networks in the uptake of self-employment, they are likely to be even less effective than other programs to promote entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Copyright of American Behavioral Scientist is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) | |
| Database: | Education Research Complete |
| FullText | Text: Availability: 0 |
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| Header | DbId: ehh DbLabel: Education Research Complete An: 135266198 AccessLevel: 6 PubType: Academic Journal PubTypeId: academicJournal PreciseRelevancyScore: 0 |
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| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Identifiers: – Type: doi Value: 10.1177/0002764218794240 Languages: – Code: eng Text: English PhysicalDescription: Pagination: PageCount: 19 StartPage: 147 Subjects: – SubjectFull: Young adults Type: general – SubjectFull: Youth Type: general – SubjectFull: Government policy Type: general – SubjectFull: Self-employment Type: general – SubjectFull: Low-income countries Type: general – SubjectFull: Middle-income countries Type: general – SubjectFull: Employment policy Type: general – SubjectFull: Quality of work life Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: The Experience of Self-Employment Among Young People: An Exploratory Analysis of 28 Low- to Middle-Income Countries. Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Burchell, Brendan J. – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Coutts, Adam P. IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 02 Text: Feb2019 Type: published Y: 2019 Identifiers: – Type: issn-print Value: 00027642 Numbering: – Type: volume Value: 63 – Type: issue Value: 2 Titles: – TitleFull: American Behavioral Scientist Type: main |
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