Spousal Characteristics and Self-Employment Survival

Abstract

This thesis examines the role of spouse-related factors in the self-employment survival process in the United States. While there is a large literature on the implications and determinants of entrepreneurial outcomes, such as individual characteristics, financial resources, and business performance, much less attention has been paid to the household context within which decisions of self-employment are made. The role of marital exposure, spousal income, and spouse-related shocks in explaining the duration of self-employment has not been sufficiently explored. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), this dissertation utilizes a nonparametric, semiparametric, and parametric survival analysis framework to study the association between spouse- related factors and duration of multiple self-employment spells. The main spouse- related variables incorporated in this study are total spouse labor income and marital status. The results of this analysis indicate that spouse labor income impact on self- employment survival is modest. In contrast, marital shocks seem to have a strong effect on survival in spell 1.