| Abstract [eng] |
The labour market structure is changing due to the accelerating globalization and technological progress. Self-employment is becoming a more popular alternative to wage employment, offering the opportunity to earn at least a minimal income. People choose to be self-employed due to various reasons, for e. g., new career opportunities, financial independency or the desire for autonomy. This alternative employment form has advantages, for e. g., people enjoy working independently and it offers a better work-life balance, however, there are some disadvantages, for e. g., unstable monthly income. Scientific literature identifies that self-employment trends are caused by economic, social-cultural, political-legal and scientific-technological factors. Individual authors examine various macroenvironmental factors changes and how these changes affect self-employment based on the geographical territory or age group. The lack of research examining the impact of changes in macroenvironmental factors on self-employment highlights the problem: how do individual macroenvironmental factors and their synergy influences self-employment trends? The identified problem defines the object of the study: self-employment, and the aim of the study: to identify how macroenvironmental factors and their changes affect self-employment trend in Lithuania. Empirical study is conducted using the Lithuanian statistical data from 1998 to 2023. Various econometrical models are used to identify the effect of macroenvironmental factors changes on self- employment. When analysing the individual factors effect on self-employment, it was found that only unemployment rate has a significant impact on self-employment. The unemployment rate has only a short-term negative impact on self-employment. Even though the effect of the unemployment rate is the opposite of what is identified in the scientific literature, this could possibly be explained by the geographical factors, or people attitude towards self-employment. The ARDL model was used to identify the complex effect of macroenvironmental factors on self-employment. The unemployment rate and households who have the computer and access to the internet were solely used as independent variables in this model. In this case, only households who have the computer and access to the internet has a significant effect on the number of self-employed people. This effect is positive and is significant in the short-term. The ARDL model results confirmed the theoretical effect of internet usage on self-employment. It concludes that people who have access to the internet are more likely to become self-employed than those who do not have access to the internet. Furthermore, non-linear models with the other two independent variables (inflation and R&D expenses) were statistically significant, but they were not accurate. To conclude, the empirical study only partially confirmed the theoretical assumptions of macroenvironmental factors effect on self-employment that were identified during the scientific literature analysis. |
