Self-Employment as a Route In and Out of Britain's South East

Abstract

Reuschke D. Self-employment as a route in and out of Britain's South East, Regional Studies. Based on A. J. Fielding's Escalator Region Model (ERM) on South East England, this paper examines whether the South East exports its ‘entrepreneurial culture’ and gains entrepreneurial resources through internal migration using the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) 1991–2008. Results show that, consistent with the ERM, the region loses entrepreneurs. However, importantly, out-migrants from the South East are more likely to exit subsequently from self-employment relative to other UK internal migrants. Despite its economic functions, the South East is no more likely to attract (would-be) self-employed entrepreneurs than other regions. This calls into question to what extent the South East acts as an ‘escalator’ in terms of self-employment.

Reuschke D. 自我僱用做为进入与离开英国东南部的渠道，区域研究。本文根据 A. J. Fielding 关于英格兰东南部的自动扶梯区域模型（ERM），运用英国 1991 年至 2008 年的家户盘区调查（BHPS）， 探讨该地是否出口其“创业文化”，并透过内部的迁徙获得创业资源。研究结果显示与 ERM 一致，亦即该区失去了创业家。但重要的是，相较于英国其他的内部迁徙，自东南部向外迁徙者更有可能是在自我僱用后发生。英国东南部儘管有其经济功能，却不再较其他区域更能吸引（未来的）自僱创业者。此亦对东南部做为自我僱用的 “自动扶梯” 之程度提出质疑。

Reuschke D. Le travail indépendant comme moyen d'entrer et de sortir du Sud-Est d'Angleterre, Regional Studies. Fondé sur le modèle des régions escalator du Sud-Est d'Angleterre d'après A. J. Fielding, cet article examine à partir de la British Household Panel Survey (enquête par panel auprès des ménages britanniques) de 1991 à 2008 si, oui ou non, le Sud–Est exporte sa ‘culture entrepreneuriale’ et obtient des ressources entrepreneuriales par le canal de la migration interne. Les résultats montrent que, conformément au modèle des régions escalator, il y a un exode régional d'entrepreneurs. Cependant, il est important de souligner que les sortants du Sud-Est sont plus susceptibles de quitter ultérieurement le travail indépendant par rapport à d'autres migrants internes britanniques. En dépit de ses fluctuations économiques, le Sud-Est n'est plus susceptible de séduire les (éventuels) entrepreneurs autonomes que ne le sont les autres régions. Cela remet en cause la mesure dans laquelle le Sud-Est agit comme ‘escalator’ en termes du travail indépendant.

Reuschke D. Berufliche Selbstaendigkeit als Weg zum und vom Südosten Großbritanniens, Regional Studies. Ausgehend von A. J. Fieldings Modell der ‘Fahrstuhl’ Region (ERM) von Südostengland wird in diesem Beitrag mit Hilfe der Daten des British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) von 1991 bis 2008 untersucht, ob der englische Südosten durch interne Migration seine ‘unternehmerische Kultur’ exportiert und unternehmerische Ressourcen gewinnt. Aus den Ergebnissen geht hervor, dass die Region wie im ERM vorgesehen beruflich Selbstaendige verliert. Hierbei ist jedoch wichtig, dass Emigranten aus dem Südosten anschließend häufiger aus einer selbstaendigen Tätigkeit ausscheiden als andere interne Migran ten Großbritanniens. Trotz seiner wirtschaftlichen Funktionen zieht der Südosten (potenzielle) beruflich Selbstaendige nicht stärker an als andere Regionen. Hierdurch ergibt sich die Frage, in welchem Umfang der Südosten hinsichtlich beruflicher Selbstaendigkeit als ‘Fahrstuhl’ wirkt.

Reuschke D. Empleo autónomo como vía para entrar y salir del sureste de Inglaterra, Regional Studies. Con ayuda de los datos de la encuesta británica de presupuestos familiares (BHPS) para el periodo 1991–2008 y a partir del modelo de regiones escaladoras de A. J. Fielding para la zona sureste de Inglaterra, en este artículo se analiza si mediante la migración interna se exporta la ‘cultura empresarial’ y se adquieren recursos empresariales en esta región. Los resultados indican que, tal como indica el modelo de regiones escaladoras, esta región pierde empresarios. Sin embargo, es importante señalar que, en comparación con otros emigrantes internos del Reino Unido, es más probable que los emigrantes del sureste terminen abandonando el empleo autónomo. Pese a sus funciones económicas, no es probable que el sureste atraiga más (posibles) empresarios autónomos que otras regiones. Esto cuestiona en qué medida el sureste actúa como un ‘escalador’ en lo que respecta al empleo autónomo.

• Self-employment
• Internal migration
• South East England
• Escalator region
• Panel data

• 自我僱用
• 内部迁徙
• 英格兰东南部
• 自动扶梯区域
• 面板数据

• Travail indépendant
• Migration interne
• Sud-Est d'Angleterre
• Région escalator
• Données de panel

• Berufliche Selbstaendigkeit
• Interne Migration
• Südostengland
• Fahrstuhl Region
• Paneldaten

• Empleo autónomo
• Migración interna
• Sureste de Inglaterra
• Región escaladora
• Datos de panel

JEL classifications:

• J23
• J62
• R23

Acknowledgments

The work on this paper was funded by a Marie Curie grant from the European Commission within the 7th Framework Program (ID 252752). The author is grateful to Tony Champion for encouraging her to work on this paper and for helpful comments. The author would also like to thank Donald Houston for producing the map and for comments on an earlier version of this paper. The author is also grateful to three autonomous referees for their methodological and theoretical suggestions and advice.

Notes

1. Author's calculation based on Business Demography 2010 (ONS, 2011). This includes both businesses that are registered for VAT or Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) schemes and unregistered businesses.

2. Author's calculation based on ONS (2012c) matrices.

3. See http://www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/media1/economic_insight/halifax_house_price_index_page.asp/.

4. Author's calculation based on ONS (2012c) matrices.

5. Between April and June 2012 in Greater London and the rest of the South East, 18% and 15%, respectively, of the workforce were self-employed compared with 14% in the UK on average.

6. Fielding's results are mainly based on mobility matrices drawn from the Longitudinal Study (LS). The LS only allows examining transitions over a ten-year period (within England and Wales). Thus, in his sample, workers could have switched into self-employment many years after their move from the South East. For example, in a case where there are eight years between the two events, it would be questionable, however, how strong the business start-up is related to the move, that is, human capital resources (for example, skills/knowledge acquisition, social networks) and financial resources (for example, housing wealth) gained in the South East. It is also likely that in Fielding's sample out-migrants commuted ‘back’ to the South East for a certain period of time before becoming self-employed. This method also neglects the transitional nature of self-employment in the UK context (Taylor, 1999).

7. ‘Did you move for reasons that were wholly or partly to do with your own job, or employment opportunities?’

8. This approach is different to Fielding's Escalator Region Model. Given the focus of the Escalator Region Model on social mobility, Fielding used the Socio-Economic Groups (SEG) classification in order to define social class categories. Having an interest in self-employment/entrepreneurship, this has the disadvantage that only employers with small- to medium-sized businesses and non-professional self-employed workers without employees together are considered as one separate group (‘Petite Bourgeoisie’). In Fielding's study the professional self-employed without employees were included in the ‘Service class’ category and were thus not analysed separately from professional, technical and managerial employed workers.

9. Despite pooling eighteen waves, the number of migration events in the BHPS is too small to model the probability of a simultaneous event of migrating and a switch into self-employment relative to other migration and employment states as a function of region of origin/destination (that is, from/to the South East).

10. Alternatively, the odds of switching from employment to self-employment conditional on migrating from/to the South East were estimated in order to validate the results. This alternative method confirms the estimates using migrating from/to the South East as an outcome variable. Due to brevity, the latter estimates are not reported (but can be obtained from the author upon request).

11. Odds ratios indicate the number by which one would multiply the odds of group 1 of the outcome variable for each one unit increase in continuous predictor variables (while holding all other variables constant).

12. The exclusion of the variable ‘Move for employment reasons t to t + 1’ from the specification has no effect on the employment status transitions.