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Author: Ahn, Taehyun
Resulting in 6 citations.
1. Ahn, Taehyun
Attitudes Toward Risk and Self-Employment of Young Workers
Labour Economics 17,2 (April 2010): 434-442.
Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537109000712
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Income Risk; Risk-Taking; Self-Employed Workers; Variables, Independent - Covariate

A high degree of risk tolerance is often regarded as one of the fundamental characteristics of entrepreneurs. Using multiple responses on risky income gambles in the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), I investigate the effect of individual risk tolerance on the probability of entry into self-employment. I construct a measure of individual level of risk tolerance that is corrected for reporting error and that varies with age and other covariates that potentially affect self-employment decision. I find that risk tolerance is an important determinant of the decision to enter self-employment. However, I find that the estimated effect of risk tolerance on the probability of entering self-employment is dramatically understated if measurement error is not taken into account. In addition, I find that that accounting for the correlation between risk tolerance and other covariates is important to correctly assess the effects of the other determinants of self-employment while it has a trivial effect on the estimated marginal effect of risk tolerance. [Copyright Elsevier]
Bibliography Citation
Ahn, Taehyun. "Attitudes Toward Risk and Self-Employment of Young Workers." Labour Economics 17,2 (April 2010): 434-442.
2. Ahn, Taehyun
Essays on Self-Employment of Young Workers
Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Economics, The Ohio State University, 2008
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT)
Keyword(s): Endogeneity; Modeling, Logit; Racial Differences; Risk-Taking; Self-Employed Workers; Work History

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Academic interest in self-employment has grown rapidly in recent decades. However, relatively little is known about the longitudinal patterns of young self-employed workers. In the first essay, I examine the patterns of self-employment that appear in the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79). I find that most of self-employed workers hold wage jobs before entering self-employment and come back to wage sector after experiencing one or two self-employment spells. Self-employment jobs differ in terms of industry distribution, for both men and women and they are – female self-employment jobs, in particular – likely to entail changes in industry. Additionally, I find that female self-employment spells are more likely to be followed by a large percent of time nonemployed and a small percent of time in the same industry compared to the wage employment while the opposite are true for the male self-employment spells.

Risk tolerance and liquidity constraints are widely believed to be key determinants of self-employment, but their independent effects have proved difficult to identify. In the second essay, I specify a theoretical model that illustrates how individual risk tolerance and liquidity constraints affect the decision to become self-employed. I then tackle the empirical identification problem by constructing a measure of risk tolerance that is corrected for reporting error, varies with age and assets, and allows for the endogeneity of assets. In contrast to previous studies that use regional variation in housing prices as an instrument for assets, I address the fact that housing appreciation affects homeowners and nonowners differently. I find that risk tolerant workers are more likely to be self-employed than are their less risk tolerant counterparts. However, net asset levels have an insignificant effect on self-employment entry once absolute risk tolerance is properly taken into account.

The absence of successful businesses owned by minorities, and by blacks in particular, is a concern for policy makers. In the third essay, I exploit detailed work history data in the NLSY79 to provide new evidence on the reasons behind the race gap in self-employment. My analysis of an "age uniform" sample of men, all of whom are observed from age 22 to age 40, reveals that racial differences in cross-sectional self-employment rates are largely due to the fact that minority workers' self-employment spells are relatively short-lived. Moreover, I find that minority workers' relatively high exit rates from self-employment are caused primarily by transitions to nonemployment. Estimates from a multinomial logit model of self-employment exits suggest that minority workers' weak attachment to the labor market prior to entering self-employment is an important determinant of their self-employment to nonemployment transitions, while lack of prior industry and self-employment experience contributes to minorities' transitions to nonself-employment.

Bibliography Citation
Ahn, Taehyun. Essays on Self-Employment of Young Workers. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Economics, The Ohio State University, 2008.
3. Ahn, Taehyun
Locus of Control and Job Turnover
Economic Inquiry 53,2 (April 2015): 1350-1365.
Also: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ecin.12173/full
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Wiley Online
Keyword(s): Job Turnover; Locus of Control (see Rotter Scale); Rotter Scale (see Locus of Control); Wage Growth

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

In this article, I investigate how a worker's locus of control, that is, the perception of control over daily events, affects job-to-job and job-to-nonemployment turnover. I find that an increase in internality--the degree to which respondents believe that the outcomes of their life events are determined by their own actions versus external factors--increases job-to-job transitions. In addition, the annual wage growth rate and the wage gains from job-to-job transitions increase with internality. The influence of the locus of control on job-to-nonemployment turnover, however, is insignificant on controlling for the worker's level of attained education.
Bibliography Citation
Ahn, Taehyun. "Locus of Control and Job Turnover." Economic Inquiry 53,2 (April 2015): 1350-1365.
4. Ahn, Taehyun
Racial Differences in Self-employment Exits
Small Business Economics 36,2 (February 2011): 169-186.
Also: http://www.springerlink.com/content/30367772446p5l44/
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Kluwer Academic Publishers
Keyword(s): Entrepreneurship; Exits; Modeling, Logit; Racial Differences; Self-Employed Workers; Transition Rates, Activity to Work; Transitional Programs; Work History

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Using detailed work history data in the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, I investigate the reasons behind the racial gap in self-employment. My analysis of an 'age uniform' sample of men, all of whom are observed from age 22 to 40 years, reveals that racial differences in cross-sectional self-employment rates are largely due to the fact that minority workers' self-employment spells are relatively short-lived. Moreover, I find that minority workers' relatively high exit rates are driven primarily by transitions to nonemployment. Estimates from a multinomial logit model of self-employment exits suggest that minority workers' weak attachment to the labor market prior to entering self-employment is an important determinant of their transition from self-employment to nonemployment, while lack of prior industry and self-employment experience contributes to minorities' transitions to wage employment. When I assign blacks and Hispanics the same (mean) work histories as whites, the predicted black-white gap in the first-year self-employment survival rate decreases by 31% and the Hispanic-white gap decreases by 14%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Small Business Economics is the property of Springer Science & Business Media B.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Bibliography Citation
Ahn, Taehyun. "Racial Differences in Self-employment Exits." Small Business Economics 36,2 (February 2011): 169-186.
5. Ahn, Taehyun
The Employment Dynamics of Less-educated Men in the United States: The Role of Self-employment
Canadian Journal of Economics 48,1 (February 2015): 110-133.
Also: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/caje.12119/abstract
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Canadian Economics Association / Association canadienne d\'economiques
Keyword(s): Educational Attainment; Labor Force Participation; Modeling, Logit; Self-Employed Workers

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Using data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, I construct a sample of working-age males and examine the employment dynamics with a particular focus on the role of self-employment for less-educated men in the US. I find that men responding they had at some point been self-employed tend to spend less time in non-employment than other less-educated men. The results from the dynamic multinomial logit model reveal positive aspects of self-employment by indicating that less-educated men who were self-employed in the previous year were less likely to be non-employed in the future as compared to those who were paid workers in the previous year.
Bibliography Citation
Ahn, Taehyun. "The Employment Dynamics of Less-educated Men in the United States: The Role of Self-employment." Canadian Journal of Economics 48,1 (February 2015): 110-133.
6. Light, Audrey L.
Ahn, Taehyun
Divorce as Risky Behavior
Demography 47,4 (November 2010): 895-921.
Also: http://www.springerlink.com/content/15g8j58430171381/
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Divorce; Marriage; Modeling, Probit; Risk Perception; Risk-Taking; Variables, Independent - Covariate

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Given that divorce often represents a high-stakes income gamble, we ask how individual levels of risk tolerance affect the decision to divorce. We extend the orthodox divorce model by assuming that individuals are risk averse, that marriage is risky, and that divorce is even riskier. The model predicts that conditional on the expected gains to marriage and divorce, the probability of divorce increases with relative risk tolerance because risk averse individuals require compensation for the additional risk that is inherent in divorce. To implement the model empirically, we use data for first-married women and men from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to estimate a probit model of divorce in which a measure of risk tolerance is among the covariates. The estimates reveal that a 1-point increase in risk tolerance raises the predicted probability of divorce by 4.3% for a representative man and by 11.4% for a representative woman. These findings are consistent with the notion that divorce entails a greater income gamble for women than for men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Demography is the property of Population Association of America and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Bibliography Citation
Light, Audrey L. and Taehyun Ahn. "Divorce as Risky Behavior." Demography 47,4 (November 2010): 895-921.