Abstract:
In this paper, we address the questions who are the self-employed and whether they are in general happier than waged workers using the newly released NELS data set for young people in their transition from school to work. We find that financial resources, education, and entrepreneurship capital (or attitude toward risk) are important in their decision to become self-employed. The self-employed are found to be better off in their satisfaction with pay, with overall job satisfaction and with the importance of work, but not in terms of job security.