Heterogeneous self-employment and subjective well-being: evidence from Latin America
Identificadores
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10481/31586Metadata
Show full item recordEditorial
Universidad de Granada. Departamento de Teoría e Historia Económica
Materia
Labor informality Voluntary us involuntary self-employment Life a job satisfaction
Date
2013-06Referencia bibliográfica
Cortés Aguilar, A.; García-Muñoz, T.; Moro-Egido, A. Heterogeneous self-employment and subjective well-being: evidence from Latin America. Universidad de Granada. Departamento de Teoría e Historia Económica (2013). (The Papers; 13/05). [http://hdl.handle.net/10481/31586]
Sponsorship
The financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (ECO2010-17049) to M. Teresa García-Muñoz and from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through grant ECO2012-33993 to Ana I. Moro-Egido is gratefully acknowledged.Abstract
This paper analyzes the relationship between labor status and individual satisfaction in Latin America. Existing evidence for developed countries shows that the self-employed report higher job satisfaction than the employed. The evidence, however, is less conclusive in terms of lifesatisfaction. Moreover, for Latin American countries, the evidence shows that self-employed individuals report lower life-satisfaction than employed individuals do. To clarify the effect of selfemployment on satisfaction, we use the Latinobarómetro survey 2007 for eighteen Latin American and Caribbean countries, considering the category self-employment as a heterogeneous category. Additionally, we control for the distinction between necessity and opportunity self-employed. Contrary to existing evidence, we find that not all self-employed individuals are more satisfied than employed individuals. Specifically, we find evidence revealing that, compared to workers in paid employment (i) precarious self-employed workers are as satisfied as the employed with their life but less with job and household income; (ii) self-employed professionals are more satisfied than the employed only with their incomes; (iii) business owners are more satisfied with their lives, income and job; and (iv) self-employed famers and fisherman are less satisfied with their jobs and income.