Self–Employment and Windfall Gains in Britain: Evidence from Panel Data

<jats:p>Liquidity constraints can prohibit potential entrepreneurs from starting up in business, can restrict the growth of existing entrepreneurial activities and, in the extreme, can result in small business failure. This paper uses British panel data to investigate the effects of relaxing liquidity constraints on self–employment through the unanticipated receipt of windfall gains. It discusses the different impacts the receipt of a windfall payment may have on self–employment. The results suggest that the size of the payment received has a positive and concave effect on the probability of entering self–employment and on the performance of an existing self–employment enterprise, consistent with the liquidity constraint hypothesis.</jats:p>