ISSR

ISSR Social Science Research Scholar - Biography

Work-Family Policy and Cross-National Patterns of Entrepreneurship: How Policies Shape Gender Differences in Self-Employment Participation and Earnings

Past research indicates that the character of women's participation in, and earnings from, self-employment in the U.S. is profoundly shaped by their family responsibilities. This has been attributed in part to the absence of significant employment supports for mothers of young children.  But if these supports--such as universal publicly funded childcare or universal maternity leave--did exist in the U.S., would the nature of women's engagement in self-employment, and the related gender gaps in self-employment participation and self-employment earnings, also change?  Using newly collected social policy data for 22 nations and longitudinal data from the European Community Household Panel Survey, I propose to examine the relationships between work-family policies and gender differences in self-employment participation and earnings.