Low income and enterprise

In this podcast, Emma Congreve speaks to Isla Kapasi from the University of Leeds about research carried out on low income self-employment in Scotland. This is a fascinating and important topic given the large numbers of people in poverty who are in self-employed households.

The research looks into the reasons why people start their own business, and the constraints they face in trying to earn an adequate income. In the podcast we also discuss what policy makers could do to support this group of the self-employed, and what Covid-19 may mean for the self employment.

Guests:

Chair: Emma Congreve, FAI

Guest: Isla Kapasi, University of Leeds

Timestamps:

(02:25) Motivations for self employment

(06:37) Are there particular groups that are affected

(11:53) Implications for policy

(24:12) Post Covid considerations for low income self employed

Links to further information on the project:

• Authors: Isla Kapasi¹, Rebecca Stirzaker², Laura Galloway³, Laura Jackman⁴, Andreea Mihut⁵

  ¹ University of Leeds, i.kapasi@leeds.ac.uk, 0113 343 2611 (Contact Author) 

  ² University of South-Eastern Norway 

  ^{3, 4} Heriot-Watt University

  ⁵ University of Edinburgh

• https://pureapps2.hw.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/9934375/In_work_Poverty_Enterprise_Report.pdf
• Smith, A., Galloway, L., Jackman, L., Danson, M. & Whittam, G. (2019) Poverty, social exclusion and enterprise policy A study of UK policies’ effectiveness over 40 years. International Journal of Entrepreneurship & Innovation 20(2), 107-118. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1465750318809803
• Danson, M., Galloway, L. & Sherif, M. (2020) From unemployment to self-employment: can enterprise policy intensify the risks of poverty? Critical Perspectives on Accounting. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1045235420300174?via%3Dihub
• https://business.leeds.ac.uk/cees/dir-record/research-projects/1537/why-the-poor-outcomes-an-examination-of-motivations-in-a-context-of-poverty-entrepreneurship

Funded by BA/Leverhulme: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/ba-leverhulme-small-research-grants

Authors

Emma Congreve

Emma is Deputy Director and Senior Knowledge Exchange Fellow at the Fraser of Allander Institute