Dabbled vs sustained self-employment: exploring educational returns within dynamic employment groups

What is it about?

This study looks at how education impacts earnings for three types of workers in the UK: regular employees, people who sometimes work for themselves (dabblers), and those who are always self-employed (sustained self-employed). We want to understand how education helps these different groups make money. We used data from two large UK surveys to study this: the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and Understanding Society: The UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS). To make sure our results were accurate, we used special methods to account for differences between individuals and to correct for any bias in how people choose their jobs. Our findings show that people who are consistently self-employed benefit more from their education than those who only occasionally work for themselves and, in some cases, more than regular employees. Dabblers with higher education, such as postgraduate degrees, earn more than regular employees, but those with less education tend to earn less because they switch between self-employment and regular jobs too often. This study provides new insights into how education affects earnings for self-employed individuals in the UK. It highlights the different challenges and outcomes for people based on their type of employment and level of education.

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