Self-employment by gender in the EU: convergence and clusters

Abstract

[Abstract]: This paper studies the convergence of self-employment by gender in the European Union, through tests for the order of integration and cluster analysis, in order to investigate the occurrence of two types of convergence: between genders and among European countries. The paper makes two contributions to the literature: 1) theoretically, it provides useful insights into the macroeconomic determinants of self-employment; 2) methodologically, it uses unit roots, fractional integration and cluster analysis to assess convergence. The empirical results point at mixed evidence of convergence, but with clear differences between the core and the periphery of Europe.