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DETERMINANTS OF SELF EMPLOYMENT DECISION IN WEST SHOA ZONE, OROMIA REGION, ETHIOPIA [Abstract ID: 0307-05]
Self-employment and entrepreneurship are considered to be major drivers of development, employment and wealth creation, and are therefore gaining increasing attention from governments and policy-makers. However, very little is known about what factors determine the self-employment decisions of individuals. The main objective of this study was therefore to investigate the various determinants of self-employment decisions using survey data collected from a total of 242 randomly selected respondents (147 self-employed and 95 salaried) from four towns in West Shoa Zone, Oromia Region, Ethiopia. The study employed logistic regression to assess the determinants of self-employment. The finding that emerged from the study was that the age of the respondents, educational attainment, household size, having a self-employed parent, inheritance, and access to credit, are variables that have a significant and positive influence on the decision to be self-employed. On the other hand, the factors of respondent age-squared and access to paid employment affects self-employment status negatively and significantly. Based on the results and discussions, the study suggests that government organizations and other development agencies concerned with unemployment reduction and poverty alleviation through the promotion of self-employment need to take these determining factors into account in order to achieve better outcomes and enhance self-employment and entrepreneurship activities in the study area.