Abstract
This study investigates the association of the rural–urban divide and the time individuals allocate to self-employment. The empirical analysis uses fixed effects modelling on data from the UK Household Longitudinal Survey over the period 2009–2019. The study identifies significant differences in the time men and women allocate to self-employment between rural and urban areas according to their career age group. While men and women tend to allocate more time to selfemployment in their senior career age when residents of urban areas, the time they allocate to self-employment between rural and urban areas in early- and mid-career age differs markedly. More importantly, we find that significant differences exist not only between residents of rural and urban areas, but also between residents of these areas and in-migrants to these areas. We find a significant positive effect on the time senior career age women who migrate to rural areas allocate to self-employment. In contrast, we find that early career men who move from rural to urban areas allocate significantly more time to self-employment. The results reveal the existence of complex dynamics between gender and age, which affect the allocation of time to self-employment between rural and urban areas.
Highlights
The development of the modern city as a centre for work has transformed the landscape of business opportunities for both the wage- and the self-employed [1,2,3]
76.79 percent of men and 74.79 percent of women are living in urban areas, whereas 23.21 percent of men and 25.21 percent of women are living in rural areas
Departing from previous analyses that use the typical binary wage- or self-employment variables and examine the transition to self-employment as an end in itself, our approach perceives the transition, to and from self-employment, as part of a continuous employment experience. Using this novel approach to measuring the time people spend in wage- and self-employment, the analysis shows that there exist important differences between rural and urban areas, and differences between men and women
Summary
The development of the modern city as a centre for work has transformed the landscape of business opportunities for both the wage- and the self-employed [1,2,3]. The study of urbanism and how the city has become a focus for socioeconomic pursuit dates to Wirth’s 1938 publication of “Urbanism as a way of life” [6]. The city has become an engine of economic growth, and the location where venture capitalists and firms cluster [4]. Urbanisation and the idea of the city as an economic growth centre has received criticism over the years [7,8,9,10]. A recent study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Task Force on the Work of the Future explores the occupational changes in urban employment and incomes for the period 1980–2020, indicating that middle income jobs are fast disappearing from thriving cities such as New York and San Francisco [10]. The study shows that whereas the socioeconomic status of highly educated workers has improved during the past decade, that of non-highly educated workers has deteriorated
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