Developing Self-Employment among African Americans : An Examination of Human Capital Resources

Abstract

According to 1997 U.S. Census data, African Americans own only 4% of small, entrepreneurial businesses, and earn 0.4% of total receipts for all small businesses. The selfemployment status of African Americans is tenuous in the United States. Given that African Americans may not be fully using self-employment as an alternative in the pursuit of economic development, this paper investigates whether self-employment outcomes differ between African Americans and whites, based on their accumulation of human capital resources. Data from the 1993 through 2000 Current Population Surveys: Annual Individual level Files (CPS) are employed to investigate self-employment outcomes among African Americans and whites.