Self-employment duration during the COVID-19 pandemic: A competing risk analysis

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused hardship to both individuals and businesses. Aggregate data indicate large increases in unemployment and bankruptcy since the beginning of the pandemic, but it is unclear which individuals and businesses are the most vulnerable. With “work absence”, “wage employment” and “unemployment” as three competing risks or events, we study the relationships of owner characteristics to self-employment duration during the COVID-19 pandemic (January-December 2020) in the United States with data from 19,174 respondents to the Current Population Survey. We find that several owner characteristics relate significantly to self-employment duration during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, young, female, and non-White self-employed individuals face a relatively high risk of unemployment. These and other findings have profound implications for policymakers.