José María Millán

• PhD
• Professor (Full) at University of Huelva

This paper examines whether the strictness of employment protection legislation encourages employers to contract out work to their own paid employees by the formula of dependent self-employment, while makes transitions to independent self-employment less likely by altering the relative valuation of risk between salaried-work and self-employment in...

Human capital obtained through education has been shown to be one of the strongest drivers of entrepreneurship performance. The entrepreneur’s human capital, though, is only one of the input factors into the production process of her venture. In this paper we will analyze to what extent the education levels of other (potential) stakeholders affect...

As several European governments develop new start-up programmes during recessions, the appropriateness of these policies recently has become a hot policy issue. This study suggests that the contribution of these incentives is dubious, if aimed to combat economic and jobs crises as part of the entrepreneurship policy, and can be shaped by various co...

In this study, we examine whether job control, job demands and job outcomes of ‘dependent self-employed workers’, i.e., the workers in this particular grey zone between employment and self-employment, are more similar to those of the self-employed or paid employed. To this end, we use microdata drawn from the 2010 wave of the European Working Condi...

This paper explores the extent to which information and communication technology (ICT) is used by different types of self-employed individuals and how it affects their earnings. We investigate independent own-account workers (IOA), self-employed with employees (SEwE) and dependent self-employed workers (DSEW). Using recent survey data for 35 Europe...

We investigate determinants of the frequency of ICT usage of three types of self-employed workers —self-employed with employees; independent own-account self-employed; and dependent self-employed workers— in 305 European NUTS-2 regions. Besides individual-level determinants, we also investigate the role of regional-level general human capital and o...

Using panel data for three five-year cohorts of starting entrepreneurs in European countries, we identify several growth trajectories that are followed by the entrepreneurs during the business formation stage (operationalised as the first five years of business). These growth trajectories are based on combining two criteria: (i) entry status (solo...

Este trabajo presenta una propuesta metodológica para la estimación del indicador AROPE (Eurostat) –y de sus componentes sobre renta y empleo– sobre la población en riesgo de pobreza y/o exclusión social para los municipios de Andalucía de manera continua en el tiempo. La capacidad predictiva de esta propuesta se evalúa mediante un ejercicio de est...

Research shows that stress at work can affect the health of individuals. In particular, working time quality (the extent and flexibility of the working time) has been found to be an important antecedent of stress at work. Prior entrepreneurship research further shows that not only job demands and control but also working time quality differ between...

This article introduces the special issue Decide to Digitalize! Barriers, Drivers and the Entrepreneurial Cognition Perspective. Nine research papers have been selected to reach two primary research aims: first, to understand how entrepreneurs, cognitively, make strategical decisions in order to be more competitive in the technology sector; second,...

Background During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, governments imposed numerous regulations to protect public health, particularly the (mandatory) use of face masks. However, the appropriateness and effectiveness of face mask regulations have been widely discussed, as is apparent from the divergent measures taken across and within countries over time, i...

The objective of the study was to analyze the relationship between individual socioeconomic characteristics and cigarette consumption in Spain. The sample consisted of 19,931 individuals aged 15 or older who completed the European Health Interview Survey for Spain (EHSS-2014). Variables: prevalence and intensity of cigarette consumption. Multivaria...

It is increasingly being recognized that different types of entrepreneurs exist with different performance levels and different contributions to the economy. Two common classifications of entrepreneurship types are based on professional status and start-up motive, where independent own-account workers are assumed to perform better than dependent se...

A gender earnings gap has been found among employees in the organizational workplace context. It is unknown if such gap also exists among entrepreneurs, who are playing a significant role in our economic activities. This study aims to fill this important gap by examining the gender earnings gap among entrepreneurs using data collected from over 500...

Using recent data drawn from the European Working Conditions Survey for 32 European countries, we explore the relationship between two indicators of knowledge diffusion processes —country-level R&D and individual-level ICT usage at work by entrepreneurs—, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), and individual-level entrepreneurial performance as measur...

We investigate the impact of country R&D on the allocation of self-employment across different types, where types are identified based on occupational status and start-up motive. We first conduct a literature review based on which we consider the self-employed with employees to be of higher ‘quality’ (in terms of their overall contribution to the e...

Prevailing research on individuals’ compliance with public health related behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic tends to study composite measures of multiple types of behaviours, without distinguishing between different types of behaviours. However, measures taken by governments involve adjustments concerning a range of different daily behaviours...

Although trademarks are the most widely used form of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) by firms across all economic sectors worldwide, this indicator is a much less exploited information resource in empirical analysis compared with patents. Our work addresses this gap by investigating the relationship between trademark registration and entreprene...

Using recent data drawn from the European Working Conditions Survey for 32 European countries, we explore the relationship between country-level expenditures on R&D, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), and individual-level entrepreneurial performance as measured by earnings. Our results show that both R&D expenditures and IPR are positively associa...

Europe has become increasingly entrepreneurial over the last generation with a substantial rise in the numbers of working people choosing an entrepreneurial career path. This dynamic reflects longer-term changes in the nature of work itself and profound changes in the composition of the labour force. In this paper we consider two basic research que...

Este trabajo explora el papel que tienen diferentes tipos de limitaciones, enfermedades y problemas de salud sobre la probabilidad de trabajar y la probabilidad de pertenecer a distintos colectivos (empresarios, funcionarios, asalariados no funcionarios, desempleados, inactivos y estudiantes). Con este objetivo, y utilizando los microdatos de la En...

We investigate the impact of prior entrepreneurial experience on current performance of firms with employees (employer firms). We distinguish between external entrepreneurial experience obtained outside of the current firm and internal entrepreneurial experience obtained within the boundaries of the employer firm currently run. Regarding the latter...

This paper compares job satisfaction of true and false own-account workers. The latter group refers to own-account workers who are employed with the same tasks by the same employer for whom they previously worked as employees. To create a valid comparable group, the former workers are defined as paid employees who independently started a new busine...

We investigate whether start-up motive is related to the entrepreneur's earnings, and whether start-up motive moderates the relationship between the entrepreneur's business tenure (i.e., the time the entrepreneur is running the business) and earnings. We employ a unique longitudinal data base providing information on start-up motive and earnings fo...

En este trabajo se describe y evalúa una experiencia internacional de aprendizaje interactivo desarrollada en la asignatura Pequeñas Empresas e Iniciativa Empresarial, perteneciente al programa Máster en Iniciativa Empresarial, Estrategia y Economía de las Organizaciones, ofertado en la Facultad de Economía de la Universidad Erasmus de Rotterdam. A...

Este estudio analiza el trabajo no declarado como pieza fundamental en la economía sumergida en la UE-28, haciendo especial énfasis en su cuantificación y evolución, estructura, variabilidad por países y determinantes. Con este objetivo, se aplican métodos de regresión lineal y modelos de elección discreta con variable dependiente binaria sobre la...

This article examines the impact of national employment incentive programs on employment growth of individual firms in the original fifteen member states of the European Union (EU-15). We investigate whether this impact differs among firms of different size classes, and whether the effectiveness of employment incentive programs depends on the busin...

This study describes and evaluates a teaching experience that combines the use of financial press with the ‘writing to learn’ method, within the subject Intermediate Macroeconomics. The subject belongs to a field of economics which is characterized by a particularly high degree of mathematical abstraction and in which the accurate assimilation of t...

This study aims to improve our understanding of overqualification by incorporating distinctions in employment status (i.e., self-employed workers, private employees and public employees) in the analysis of the incidence, effects, dynamics and routes out of overqualification. To this end, we apply discrete choice –ordered and non-ordered– and count...

We study the role of the business cycle in the individual decision of own-account workers to hire employees. Using panel data from the European Community Household Panel for the EU-15 countries, we show that own-account workers are less likely to hire employees during recessions. Next, we focus on identifying the underlying mechanisms of this negat...

This article introduces the special issue on Entrepreneurship and the Business Cycle, comprising articles presented at the workshop Good Times Bad Times: Entrepreneurship and the Cycle, held at the University of Valencia in November 2011. The workshop was organized to share insights about the under-researched issue of the interplay between entrepre...

Este trabajo analiza el papel de la actividad innovadora y el entorno tecnológico de un país sobre la decisión de ser empleador (autoempleado con asalariados) frente a la alternativa de ser trabajador autónomo (autoempleado sin asalariados). Para ello, se estiman modelos de elección discreta con variable dependiente binaria utilizando los microdato...

El presente trabajo centra su objetivo en analizar la situación laboral de las personas con discapacidad en España, y la evolución que dicha situación ha experimentado durante la reciente crisis económica. Para ello, se establece una comparativa de datos macroeconómicos referidos a inserción laboral, de población con y sin discapacidad en el period...

Given the increasing numbers of own-account workers in many European economies, an important question for policy makers is to what extent these own-account workers move on to become employers. Yet, empirical research on job creation by own-account workers hardly exists. This paper reviews a small stream of empirical literature which, by using the E...

Self-employed workers can be own-account workers who control their own work or employers who not only are their own boss but also direct others (their employees). We expect both types of self-employed, i.e., own-account workers and employers, to enjoy more independence in determining their work content (type of work) and more flexibility in shaping...

Although they represent a sizable occupational group, little is known about family employees. Using utility theory and the theory of compensating wage differentials, we hypothesize that family employees have higher levels of job satisfaction and lower wages relative to regular employees. We present several regressions based on a large cross-country...

This work tries to shed some light on the decision of becoming self-employed with and without employees, distinguishing between paid-employment and unemployment as starting status and exploring if the exposure to foreign competition also influences this decision. In doing so, we apply binary and multinomial logit models to data drawn from the Europ...

Work effort varies greatly across employees, as evidenced by substantial differences in absence rates. Moreover, absenteeism causes sizeable output losses. Using data from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP), this paper investigates absence behaviour of family employees, i.e. workers who are employed in enterprises owned by a relative. Ou...

By considering entrepreneurs who hire employees –employers– and entrepreneurs without personnel –own-account workers– as related but distinct groups within entrepreneurship, this work analyzes the roles of different factors in entrepreneurship survival from a new perspective: contrasting the determinants of own-account workers’ survival with those...

Given the big employment losses in the current economic and financial crisis, not only the creation of new jobs is important for economic and social welfare, but also the conservation of existing jobs. In this respect, it is crucial that firms that employ personnel survive. In this article, we investigate the role of the technological environment i...

By considering entrepreneurs who hire employees –employers– and entrepreneurs without personnel –own-account workers– as related but distinct groups within entrepreneurship, this work analyzes the roles of different factors in entrepreneurship survival in Europe from a new perspective: contrasting the determinants of own-account workers’ survival w...

This paper examines the impact of employment protection legislation (EPL) on hiring decisions by own-account workers and firing decisions by very small firms (one to four employees). Using data from the EU-15 countries, our results show that the strictness of employment protection legislation is negatively related to both these types of decisions,...

The job satisfaction of self-employed and paid-employed workers is analyzed using the European Community Household Panel for the EU-15 covering the years 1994-2001. We distinguish between two types of job satisfaction: job satisfaction in terms of type of work and job satisfaction in terms of job security. Findings from our generalized ordered logi...

This paper investigates the determinants of self-employment survival in Europe in two stages. The first one focuses on the effect of variables at the individual level, while the second raises questions regarding specific regional factors through the introduction of macro variables. In conducting this analysis, discrete choice models, including both...

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to shed new light on the effects of labor market institutions and the economic conditions on self-employment composition that may help the development of a comprehensive strategy to promote job creation and sustained economic growth in the post-2009 era. Methodology/approach – Using microdata from the Europ...

Este trabajo analiza el papel de la actividad innovadora de un país en la supervivencia de los emprendedores en la UE-15, considerando emprendedor al autoempleado con asalariados (o empleador). Para ello, se estiman modelos de duración sobre la base de los microdatos del Panel de Hogares de la Unión Europea (PHOGUE). Como medidas de innovación, se...

This paper summarizes the main results of the empirical research on self-employment dynamics —particularly entry and success— and discusses their possible implications on entrepreneurial policy effectiveness. The main goal of this study is to promote a debate on this topic, encouraging conditional analyses that serve as guidance in the design of a...

This study aims to increase our understanding of the contribution of the self-employed to the job creation process by investigating the individual decision of hiring employees. Our framework considers the individual decision of becoming self-employed with employees from own account self-employment, while other labour options such as paid employment...

Este artículo resume los principales resultados obtenidos por este grupo de investigación – Proyecto PRY115/09 perteneciente a la convocatoria de proyectos de investigación de 2009 de la Fundación Centro de Estudios Andaluces- sobre las políticas de promoción empresarial, dividiéndolos en dos tipos: los que pueden convertirse en guías útiles para m...

The impact of labour market institutions on both labour supply and job search rates has been exhaustively analysed in Labour Economics from theoretical as well as empirical approaches. However, research on the impact of this regulation on self-employment and its composition is limited, that is, the impact of labour market institutions on occupation...

The search for a systematic set of indicators to measure the crucial dimensions of the entrepreneurship in relation to its diagnosis, forecast and tracking, has become a very first need for both the economic analysis progress, as well as to obtain an appropriate design, monitoring and evaluation of the public policies. The main contribution of this...

The availability or ability to access the capital necessary to start an entrepreneurial project has become one of the more deeply explored elements in the empirical research, as it is considered one of the factors that more frequently constitute an obstacle to the decision of becoming an entrepreneur. This chapter tries to contribute to the measure...

This paper tries to collect, describe and evaluate all the potential statistical sources—each pursuing different goals—in order to study self-employment in Spain. The improvement of traditional databases together with the recent incorporation of new statistical sources is bolstering the knowledge of today’s labour market, self-employment included....

En este artículo se repasan los fundamentos teóricos de la relación entre el capital humano empresarial y la competitividad, conectando estas proposiciones con las nuevas directrices marcadas por la estrategia de competitividad europea, recientemente revisada.

La política empresarial de la Unión Europea se ha diseñado sobre la base de que el principal impedimento y hecho diferencial respecto a Estados Unidos en lo que respecta a la creación de empresas reside en la existencia de diferencias en la accesibilidad al capital. De esta forma, los principales instrumentos se dirigen a introducir mecanismos que...