abstract: 'Many people in the United States have achieved economic stability

  through self-employment and are often seen as embracing the

  entrepreneurial spirit and seizing opportunity. Yet, research also

  suggests that self-employment may be precarious for many people in the

  lower socioeconomic strata. Drawing on a unique dataset that combines

  longitudinal survey data with administrative tax data for a sample of

  low- and moderate-income (LMI) workers, we bring new evidence to bear on

  this debate by examining the link between self-employment and economic

  insecurity. Overall, our results show that self-employment is associated

  with greater economic insecurity among LMI workers compared with

  wage-and-salary employment. For instance, compared with their

  wage-and-salary counterparts, the self-employed have 78, 168, and 287

  percent greater odds of having an income below basic expenses, and

  experiencing an unexpected income decline and high levels of income

  volatility, respectively. We also find that differences in financial

  endowment and access to health insurance are key drivers in explaining

  the relationship between employment type and economic insecurity, as

  being able to access \$2,000 in an emergency greatly lowers the odds of

  budgetary constraint, whereas lack of health insurance increases those

  odds. These findings suggest that formal work arrangements with wages

  and benefits offered by an employer promotes greater economic stability

  among LMI workers compared with informal work arrangements via

  self-employment. We discuss implications of these results for future

  research and policy initiatives seeking to promote economic wellbeing

  through entrepreneurship.'
affiliation: 'Auguste, D (Corresponding Author), Florida Atlantic Univ, Dept Sociol,
  777 Glades Rd, Boca Raton, FL 33431 USA.

  Auguste, Daniel, Florida Atlantic Univ, Dept Sociol, 777 Glades Rd, Boca Raton,
  FL 33431 USA.

  Roll, Stephen; Despard, Mathieu, Washington Univ, George Warren Brown Sch Social
  Work, Ctr Social Dev, St Louis, MO 63130 USA.

  Despard, Mathieu, Univ N Carolina, Dept Social Work, Greensboro, NC 27402 USA.'
author: Auguste, Daniel and Roll, Stephen and Despard, Mathieu
author-email: augusted@fau.edu
author_list:
- family: Auguste
  given: Daniel
- family: Roll
  given: Stephen
- family: Despard
  given: Mathieu
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1093/sf/soab171
earlyaccessdate: FEB 2022
eissn: 1534-7605
files: []
issn: 0037-7732
journal: SOCIAL FORCES
keywords-plus: 'ALTERNATIVE WORK ARRANGEMENTS; UNITED-STATES; INEQUALITY;

  ENTREPRENEURSHIP; DETERMINANTS; FAMILY'
language: English
month: 2022 FEB 7
number-of-cited-references: '65'
orcid-numbers: Auguste, Daniel/0000-0002-7128-1079
papis_id: 1cab0176477b0bbb6cc2bb489a619574
ref: Auguste2022precarityselfemploym
times-cited: '0'
title: The Precarity of Self-Employment among Low- and Moderate-Income Households
type: article
unique-id: WOS:000792127500001
usage-count-last-180-days: '3'
usage-count-since-2013: '8'
web-of-science-categories: Sociology
year: '2022'