The effect of self-employment on health, access to care, and health behavior

The focus of this paper is to investigate the role self-employment conceptualized as a lifestyle factor on health, access to health care, and health behaviors. We analyze rich data on 13,435 working adults in the US, who are either selfemployed or salaried workers. Outcomes include physical and mental health perception, validated indexes of physical and mental health, and medical conditions;access-to-care measures such as a barrier to obtaining necessary health care;and health behaviors such as smoking, physical activity and body mass index. Instrumental variables methods are used to correct for selection into self-employment. We find that self-employment is positively associated with perceived physical health, and is negatively associated with having diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and arthritis. No mental health outcome is significantly associated with self-employment. There is no significant difference between self-employed and wage-earning individuals with regard to access to care. Self-employed individuals are less likely to smoke, and are more likely to participate in physical activity and have normal-weight. We conclude that despite lack of health insurance, self-employed persons in the US are as healthy as wage-earners, do not experience a greater barrier to access to care, and are more likely to engage in healthy behavior.

Food Security through Community Food Bank and Employment Generation： A Study in the North-Eastern Bangladesh

About twenty percent people in Bangladesh are poor and ultra-poor, and they face severe food insecurity every year. Since food deficit is a recurring phenomenon especially in the northern area of Bangladesh, due to scarcity of jobs in agriculture dilring the lean period, there is a necessity for creating employment opportunities in non-crop agriculture and off-farm services. This action research program is therefore planned and offered skill development training in different trades to the target beneficiaries in the study area for employment generation. It is observed from the field survey that introduction of self-employment opportunities of the poor farmers by conducting skill development training program in different income generating economic activities enabling them to acquire necessary skills, and helping them to choose self-employment in off-farm sectors. In addition, education and advocacy programs also helped them to ensure food security by depositing their money/foods in a community food bank aiming to use during crisis period.

Gender Equality in Northern Province Hospitality Sector in Sri Lanka

The term ＂gender equality＂ describes the equal valuing of the different characters assumed by male and female. At present in Northern part of Sri Lanka, there is huge improvement in the field of hospitality. Nowadays, gender equality is very important in every workforce especially in the hospitality sector. Many countries are accepting the gender equality. After the ethnic war in Northern Province Tamil people without any discrimination, male and female are taking part in the field of hospitality. The main reasons for this change are economical breakdown and the interest of people towards hospitality field. There are more than 10 women staffs working in the hotel industry in the Northern part of Sri Lanka. The hospitality industry helps the women staffs to balance their families. Because Northern Province has many women leadership families. Most of the female workers （Captain of the families） are working as cleaning staff, front office assistance, assistance managers, managers, and training instructors in the Northern Province hotel sector. According to the authors＇ field visit, Northern Province hospitality sectors provide some security service for the female staffs such as hostel arrangements, no night shift works, and high security inside the hotel. The Northern Province hospitality outlet not only hotels but also catering service, self-employments such as sweets delivery for the fimctions and food cooking for the parties, house works are done by both genders because after the war, many families are affected by the economic poverty. According to the authors＇ data collection, more than 200 families are doing the self-employment jobs such as catering service for the parties, food issuing for the university students, sweets issuing for the functions. Female staffs are able to work with the good mentality as they come to the working field. Though there are educated people in Northern part of Sri Lanka, only a few are qualified in this particular field. Nevertheless, at present many Northern Province female students are studying hospitality degree at University College of Jaffna. They come from different districts, mostly from Northern Province. The women hoteliers are not only capable in front office but they are also able to work in human resource department, account department, kitchen department, housekeeping department and security service department. At last, it is noted that hospitality is the key factor in the long-lasting sustainability of the economic system of the Northern part of Sri Lanka. In the future, the Northern part of Sri Lanka hospitality sector will improve a lot without any gender discrimination, because at present, the students are studying hospitality degree for their great future. It is a sustainable activity for the Northern Province hospitality sector without gender discrimination.

Bangladesh Economic Development Model （BED Model）

Bangladesh economy has experienced some stable growths with regard to major macroeconomic indicators, significant progress in social development indicators, rural infrastructure, investment in industrial agricultural sector, and poverty alleviation since the 1990s. Bangladesh has made major strides in its human development index （HDI）, population growth rate achieved to 1.3%, gross domestic product （GDP） over the last five years achieved more than 5% growth consecutively; as a result, it mooted the Brazil, Russia, India, China （BRIC） successors, otherwise known as the Next-11. The success has come through the miracle activities of micro finance （MF： Grameen Bank and non-governmental organizations （NGOs））, remittance from migrant worker （RMW）, and export of readymade garment （ERMG） products. These three （MF, RMW, and ERMG） as the ＂prime powers＂ or engines have been achieving to ＂bottom up＂ of social economic development. This paper reviews aspects of economic development in Bangladesh, analyzes three prime powers, and tries to find out a development pattern, vis-a-vis construct Bangladesh economic development model or BED model. Finally, this paper examines Bangladesh＇s development experience in light of the BED model. It has recognized MF model for poverty alleviation in the worldwide.

Risk Attitudes and Self-employment in China

Using the 2006 wave of the Chinese General Social Survey, the present paper examines the effect of risk attitudes on the likelihood of entrepreneurship in China. Our results show that risk attitudes have a nonlinear effect on the likelihood of being entrepreneurs. Risk neutral people are most likely to be entrepreneurs, while both risk averse and risk seeking people prefer to work for wages. When we further divide entrepreneurs into necessity and opportunity entrepreneurs, we find only a marginal difference in risk attitudes between wage workers and necessity entrepreneurs, while less risk averse individuals tend to be opportunity entrepreneurs. Our results have important poliey implications for the government ＂s efforts to promote entrepreneurial activities.

Determinants of Self-employment in China:Evidence from Cross-regional Data

This paper presents and tests a series of sources of regional variations in self-employment rate in China in the 2000s, and illustrates that the stage of economic development is a major explanation for the variations of self-employment rate across regions over the past decade. The negative relationship between the stage of economic development and self-employment rate identified in the paper indicates that China has entered the process offast industrialization, and self-employment is playing a diminishing role in economic growth and employment. We also find a substitution effect between self-employment and private enterprises. While both are important components of China ＇s private sector, private enterprises are becoming an increasingly important source of China＇s economic growth and employment. Furthermore, our findings also imply that when job opportunities are limited, self-employment in China is likely a forced choice of disadvantaged people who are not qualified for wage jobs.

Self-employment in Rural China:Its Development,Characteristics,and Relation to Income

Changes in the employment structure in rural China were studied with a focus on off-farm self-employment.Data from the Chinese Household Income Project surveys were used,covering the same 14 provinces from 1988 to 2018.We found that the proportion of adults in rural China with self-employment as their primary form of off-farm employment increased from only 2 percent in 1988 to 11 percent in 2013,with no further increases through 2018.In 1988 and 1995,the rate of self-employment was highest in the eastern region but this regional pattern subsequently disappeared.The probability of being self-employed in rural China was higher among married males than among unmarried persons.Having a migration experience increased the likelihood of being self-employed.Since 1995,self-employed households have had a higher average income than other categories of household.Based on estimates of income functions,we conclude that the income premium from being self-employed increased rapidly from 1988 to 1995 to become remarkably large when only a few adults were self-employed.However,as a larger fraction of the rural population entered self-employment,the payoff from being self-employed has rapidly diminished,although it was still substantial in 2018.

Self-employment in Urban China:Entrepreneurship or Disguised Unemployment?

To explore the mechanism of entry to the self-employed sector in urban China,this study tested two hypotheses:the entrepreneurship hypothesis and the disguised unemployment hypothesis,investigating the impact of mass entrepreneurship and innovation policies on business start-ups.Three main findings emerged.First,the entrepreneurship hypothesis was rejected for both local urban residents and migrants in 2013 but was supported for both groups in 2018.Second,the causality relationship between mass entrepreneurship and innovation policies and business starts-ups was not significant.Third,the results differed by group.The entrepreneurship hypothesis was supported for the younger generation of migrants in 2018 but was clearly rejected for the less educated,both in the local urban resident and migrant groups in 2013 and 2018.Robustness checks confirmed these conclusions.

Gender and Off-farm Employment： Evidence from Rural China

The goal of the present paper is to examine how the expansion of the economy from 2000 has affected rural off-farm labor market participation. Specifically, we seek to determine whether off-farm labor increased after 2000, what forms of employment are driving trends in off-farm labor and whether gender differences can be observed in off- farm employment trends. Using a nationally representative dataset that consist of two waves of surveys conducted in 2000 and 2008 in six provinces, this paper finds that off- farm labor market participation continued to rise steadily in the early 2000s. However, there is a clear difference in the trends associated with occupational choice before and after 2000. In addition, we find that rural oy^farm employment trends are diffbrent for men and women. Our analysis also shows that the rise of wage-earning employment corresponds with an increasing unskilled wage for both men and women.

SPECIAL ISSUE： MIGRANT WORKERS IN THE COURSE OF URBANIZATION Migrant workers and informal employment

On the basis of an analysis of data collected through questionnaire surveys of migrant workers informally employed in Guangzhou or working in enterprises in the Pearl River Delta, the present paper suggests that： firstly, migrant workers as a whole are found in a ~ow-level labor market that is segmented and relatively segregated; its internal balance between demand and supply is realized, however, by following a principle of laissez-faire. Secondly, that market has further evolved into formal employment inside formal enterprises and informal employment outside of it, with the latter coveting the two types of self-employment and employment. Thirdly, owing to the rather difficult state of existence of those formally employed in enterprises, as well as to the ongoing reproduction of that kind of state of existence, migrant workers tend to join the informal branch in the split between formal and informal employment. Fourthly, while the work of those migrant workers in informal employment can only serve to eke out a miserable survival, those who are self-employed have a chance for gradual accumulation and upward movement, and so the hope for a certain development.