This dissertation examines and analyzes the self-employed older workers in Korea. A large portion of older workers in Korea are already self-employed and the number is increasing. However, this target group has been overlooked in the past studies. In ...
This dissertation examines and analyzes the self-employed older workers in Korea. A large portion of older workers in Korea are already self-employed and the number is increasing. However, this target group has been overlooked in the past studies. In order to increase the survival of self-employed among older workers, this dissertation intends to understand the characteristics of the self-employment at older ages and analyze the survival rate and factors that affect the survival probability of self-employment.
The data examined in this dissertation are obtained from the Korean Retirement and Income Study Volume?T to ?V(2005 to 2009). Study group targets are 1,108 self-employed between the age of 50 to 74, with less than ten employees. Logistic regression was used as the methodology for the analysis.
Following are the summary and the major findings from the study.
First, the self-employed older workers in Korea possessed distinctive characteristics from all other age groups. Their demographic, human capital, financial and business characteristics appeared to be inferior compared to other age groups. Furthermore, while 74.4% percent of older workers became self-employed before the age of 50, as many as 25.6 percent did so after the age of 50. These two groups were different in terms of age, age at the time of self-employment entrance, location of residence, education, work type prior to start-up, experience in the same industry, household assets, business type, industry, business age and business assets. It appeared that those who became self-employed before 50 had clearly distinctive characteristics from those that did so after the age of 50.
Second, the analysis indicates that compared to survival rate of all other age groups, the survival rate is lower for self-employment at older ages at a rate of 64.4% after 4 years. In addition, the survival rate for those became self-employment before 50 was 67.6% while the rate decreased to 55.3% for those that made the transition after age 50. Therefore, the study reveals that it might become more difficult for those that turn self-employed after 50 to sustain their business.
Third, the study showed that factors that affected the survival probability were different for those that became self-employed before 50 and after 50. Factors that affected the survival probability for those became self-employed before 50 were demographics, human capital, financial status, and business characteristics. The independent variables that affected the survival probability were gender, age, health condition, retirement expectation, education(bachelor's degree or higher), type of previous employment(wage and salary worker, self-employed), household income, pension possession, business type(self-run, family-run), industry(agriculture․forestry․fishery) and business assets. In contrast, while human capital and financial status factors had no effect on the survival probability for those became self-employed after the age of 50, demographic and business characteristics had effects on the survival probability for this group. Furthermore, the independent variables that affected the survival probability of this group were also different. The only independent variables that affected the survival probability of those made the transition after 50 were retirement expectation, location of residence(province), business type(self-run), and business assets.
With the findings above, following conclusions are derived:
First, the study has clearly shown that the survival rate becomes lower for the self-employed that made transition after the age of 50 than before 50. Therefore, it is important to give more attention and prepare effective strategies to deal with the increasing trend of self-employment among oder workers.
Second, as the study results indicated that the factors affecting the survival probability were different for those became self-employed before the age of 50 and after 50, therefore, target-specific strategies are needed to support self-employed older workers. According to the study, in general, while business and demographic characteristics significantly affected the survival probability of self-employed older workers, factors such as financial status, human capital that are often the main reasons for business failure for other age groups had marginal influence on the groups we examined in this dissertation. In addition, financial status and human capital had no effect at all on the survival probability of those became self-employed after age of 50. This finding suggest that in order to improve the survival probability of self-employed older workers, it is much more important to have strategies focused on business and demographic characteristics rather than those that focused on financial status or human capital.
Third, this study showed that specific-human capital factors such as self-employment experience, wage and salary work experience, and prior experience in the same industry had no statistical impact on increasing the survival probability. This finding doesn't support the existing human capital theory and many other past findings. Therefore, it is inadequate to exempt older workers from startups support strategies merely for their prior self-employment experience. Furthermore, the study revealed that prior experience in the same industry does not guarantee the increase of survival probability, therefore, support strategies are suggested even for those with experience in the same industry.