Entrepreneur characteristics and determinants of self-employment across Europe

Given that the characteristics and motivations for self-employment in the agricultural sector, as well as the policy environment in that respect, may differ quite substantially from those in the broader economy, for the remainder of the paper we will focus on the non-agricultural sectors. [...] Again, to provide context to the rates of self-employment, we divide the data into the share of each gender in total active employment and the share of each gender in total self-employment. [...] The pattern across age is also interesting in the context of the attention given to the 16 emergence of the “gig” economy which might have led to the expectation of higher necessity self- employment amongst younger cohorts. [...] The regressions in Table 17 are run separately for Ireland and for the other countries in the sample to identify if any substantial differences emerge between the relationships of the different characteristics and the likelihood of being self-employed. [...] To this end, the distinction between opportunity and necessity as motivations for self-employment (and hence the distinction between self-employment and entrepreneurship) are important to bear in mind in the design of policy and the assessment of its impact.