Employment or self-employment - A dynamic utility-maximizing model

This article presents a dynamic utility-maximizing model of career choice b etween self-employment and employment that takes into consideration the dif ferences among people in terms of their initial attitudes toward job attrib utes and the likely changes to those attitudes as they mature. These differ ences between people affect the choice of career that maximizes their utili ty (there are at least five optimal career paths). This dynamic utility-max imizing model helps increase our understanding not only of why some people become self-employed but also of why and when some self-employed people swi tch to employment. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.