Self-employed workers: Returns to education and training

An empirical investigation of human capital returns to owners of unincorporated nonfarm businesses is described, and the results are compared with those for a similar cohort of employees. Data are from the older male cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey. A single-equation semi-log regression model is employed throughout. Results show that human capital returns to self-employed workers are basically consistent with results for employees, but some differences emerge. As hypothesized, returns to general training are somewhat larger and returns to specific training somewhat smaller for self-employed workers. The time path of returns associated with job tenure also differs.