PARENTS, PARTNERS, AND CREDENTIALS: SELF-EMPLOYMENT MOBILITY IN THE UNITED STATES AND GERMANY

Abstract

This research compares the effects of career credentials and family factors on self-employment careers in the United States and Western Germany. In Germany, both general education and vocational credentials structure self-employment, primarily at entry. In the United States, general education alone structures self-employment, primarily by stabilizing the self-employment careers of workers with higher credentials. Intergenerational transmission of self-employment is more prominent among men, while spousal transmission of self-employment status is more prominent among women. In the United States, but not in Germany, there is evidence of a “caretaker” pathway that brings mothers of young children into self-employment for short periods of time.

Citation

McManus, P.A. (2003), "PARENTS, PARTNERS, AND CREDENTIALS: SELF-EMPLOYMENT MOBILITY IN THE UNITED STATES AND GERMANY", Baker, D., Fuller, B., Hannum, E. and Werum, R. (Ed.) Inequality Across Societies: Familes, Schools and Persisting Stratification (Research in the Sociology of Education, Vol. 14), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 171-200. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1479-3539(03)14008-6