Precarious self-employment in urban Europe
Precarious self-employment in urban Europe
Urban and regional research has focussed on opportunity entrepreneurship and how cities can promote growth through the ‘right’ type of entrepreneurship. This neglects the increasing risk of precarious self-employment reflected in the compositional change of self-employment towards self-employment with no employees (‘solo self-employment’). This paper tests whether precarious self-employment is more prevalent in urban areas, in parallel to more entrepreneurial forms as shown in previous research. Based on the European Working Conditions Survey 2015 and including 30 countries, it proposes a multidimensional empirical framework of precariousness of self-employment. Findings show significant variations in the prevalence of precarious self-employment in urban versus non-urban areas across geographical regions. Some individual characteristics (gender) and job-related characteristics (industry and working at home) are related with an increased risk of precariousness in urban areas. Policies therefore need to go beyond regulatory and legal frameworks and target local conditions of self-employment.
solo self-employment, gig economy, agglomeration, entrepreneurship
Reuschke, Darja
224493ce-38bc-455d-9341-55f8555e7e13
Zhang, Mary
c5013a47-12ea-46d3-bdea-db159fcac936
Reuschke, Darja
224493ce-38bc-455d-9341-55f8555e7e13
Zhang, Mary
c5013a47-12ea-46d3-bdea-db159fcac936
Reuschke, Darja and Zhang, Mary
(2022)
Precarious self-employment in urban Europe.
European Urban and Regional Studies.
(In Press)
Abstract
Urban and regional research has focussed on opportunity entrepreneurship and how cities can promote growth through the ‘right’ type of entrepreneurship. This neglects the increasing risk of precarious self-employment reflected in the compositional change of self-employment towards self-employment with no employees (‘solo self-employment’). This paper tests whether precarious self-employment is more prevalent in urban areas, in parallel to more entrepreneurial forms as shown in previous research. Based on the European Working Conditions Survey 2015 and including 30 countries, it proposes a multidimensional empirical framework of precariousness of self-employment. Findings show significant variations in the prevalence of precarious self-employment in urban versus non-urban areas across geographical regions. Some individual characteristics (gender) and job-related characteristics (industry and working at home) are related with an increased risk of precariousness in urban areas. Policies therefore need to go beyond regulatory and legal frameworks and target local conditions of self-employment.
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Accepted/In Press date: 1 April 2022
Keywords:
solo self-employment, gig economy, agglomeration, entrepreneurship
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 456534
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/456534
ISSN: 0969-7764
PURE UUID: da77778d-24fd-4d69-8c7a-86fcca2f6db8
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Date deposited: 04 May 2022 17:11
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:41
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Contributors
Author:
Mary Zhang
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