Review of Income and Wealth · 1998 · 107 citations · 10 references
Social SciencesEconomicsEconomic HistoryLabor EconomicsSocial InequalityCredit AccessCredit RiskEmploymentHousehold EconomicsIncome DistributionInequalityCredit ConditionsHousehold Borrowing ConstraintsSelf-employment BarriersSwedish History
Is the decision to become and stay self‐employed constrained by access to credit? If this is the case, a more unequal wealth distribution will—for empirically observed distributions–imply more self‐employed, since the number of people able to provide collateral will be higher. Swedish data between 1920 and 1992 suggest that wealth inequality and the share of self‐employed among those working are positively related. The data, therefore, are consistent with the hypothesis that liquidity constraints are binding on the decision to become and stay self‐employed.
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