Abstract
Paper for The Economic Mobility Project, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts. Self-employment has held out the promise of economic mobility to generations of Americans. The success of the self- employed pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps is mythologized to the point of becoming one of the defining characteristics of the American experience and history. Like many myths, it may be based on exceptional cases rather than common experiences. Understanding the contemporary experiences, outcomes, and impact of self-employment on mobility is necessary to properly evaluate the contribution and potential of self-employment for increasing mobility in the U.S. population. In this review, we describe the mechanisms by which, and examine the evidence for the effect of self- employment as a particular institutional form of work that may have mobility outcomes different from standard employment. This first section provides an overview of the mechanisms and empirical findings, with a link to a more detailed review. Based on the literature review, this section also provides some suggestions for further research.