The role of self-employment in ireland’s older workforce

Publication date: Available online 6 August 2019Source: The Journal of the Economics of AgeingAuthor(s): Anne Nolan, Alan BarrettAbstractA feature of employment at older ages that has been observed in many countries, including Ireland, is the higher share of self-employment. This pattern of higher self-employment rates may reflect lower rates of retirement among the self-employed compared to employees, as well as transitions into self-employment at older ages. While the US literature finds evidence for both explanations, the non-US literature is more ambiguous. In this paper, we use data from four waves of the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), spanning the period 2010-2016, to test whether higher rates of self-employment at older age results from both a lower probability of retirement on the part of the self-employed, as well as transitions into self-employment. We also examine the characteristics of the older self-employed and focus on the role of differences in supplementary pension cover between the employed and self-employed in determining retirement decisions. We find that the higher proportion of self-employed people at older ages in Ireland results from lower retirement rates among the self-employed and not from transitions from employment to self-employment. This is in contrast to the US where transitions into self-employment are more prevalent. We find that the self-employed are older, more likely to be male, and significantly less likely to have any form o...
Source: The Journal of the Economics of Ageing - Category: Health Management Source Type: research