Testing the differential impact of COVID-19 on self-employed women and men in the United Kingdom
Testing the differential impact of COVID-19 on self-employed women and men in the United Kingdom
This paper investigates whether the female self-employed are more affected by the COVID- 19 crisis than the male self-employed using longitudinal data four months following the first ‘lockdown’ in the UK. We specifically test the role of family/social, economic and psychological factors on gendered differential impact. We find that self-employment exits are not gendered but women are more likely to experience reductions in hours worked and earnings. This greater adverse impact on women’s working hours and earnings is despite family responsibilities and home-schooling, industrial gender segregation and women’s greater propensity to run a non-employing business and to work part-time. However, lower attitude to risk in women is associated with lower risk of reduction in earnings. Policy needs to look beyond business exits when considering crisis support for the self-employed.
pandemic, economic impact, gender
0.2139/ssrn.3813643
Reuschke, Darja
224493ce-38bc-455d-9341-55f8555e7e13
Henley, Andrew
ea4630a1-bdfd-463d-a8ab-fd9144bdb3c4
Daniel, Elizabeth
890ce61a-7f96-460d-9c49-8c5a87f0ebc6
Price, Victoria, Sian
e0586aef-157f-48b8-ace4-ec9610bb7229
1 March 2021
Reuschke, Darja
224493ce-38bc-455d-9341-55f8555e7e13
Henley, Andrew
ea4630a1-bdfd-463d-a8ab-fd9144bdb3c4
Daniel, Elizabeth
890ce61a-7f96-460d-9c49-8c5a87f0ebc6
Price, Victoria, Sian
e0586aef-157f-48b8-ace4-ec9610bb7229
Reuschke, Darja, Henley, Andrew, Daniel, Elizabeth and Price, Victoria, Sian
(2021)
Testing the differential impact of COVID-19 on self-employed women and men in the United Kingdom.
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA): Discussion papers, (14216).
(0.2139/ssrn.3813643).
Abstract
This paper investigates whether the female self-employed are more affected by the COVID- 19 crisis than the male self-employed using longitudinal data four months following the first ‘lockdown’ in the UK. We specifically test the role of family/social, economic and psychological factors on gendered differential impact. We find that self-employment exits are not gendered but women are more likely to experience reductions in hours worked and earnings. This greater adverse impact on women’s working hours and earnings is despite family responsibilities and home-schooling, industrial gender segregation and women’s greater propensity to run a non-employing business and to work part-time. However, lower attitude to risk in women is associated with lower risk of reduction in earnings. Policy needs to look beyond business exits when considering crisis support for the self-employed.
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Published date: 1 March 2021
Keywords:
pandemic, economic impact, gender
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Local EPrints ID: 456485
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/456485
DOI: 0.2139/ssrn.3813643
PURE UUID: fddbd653-da63-458e-b067-743fd374a6a6
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Date deposited: 03 May 2022 16:54
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:41
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Author:
Andrew Henley
Author:
Elizabeth Daniel
Author:
Victoria, Sian Price
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