Self-Employment and Labor Force Participation of Older Males

Abstract

This longitudinal analysis of the labor market behavior of older, urban white males in 1969, 1971, and 1973 focuses on changes from wage-and-salary to self-employment and changes from working to nonworking status. In each two-year transition approximately 4 percent of wage-and-salary workers switched to self-employment. Controlling for a large number of economic and demographic variables, the self-employed were significantly more likely to continue to work, partly by reducing their workweek to under 35 hours. Other significant predictors of continuing to work are good health, years of schooling, white-collar occupation, no expectation of a private pension, and a workweek longer than 50 hours. Age is also important, especially at the eligibility ages set by Social Security.