Abstract: 1 Introduction.- 1.1 Relevance of the subject.- 1.2 The definition of self-employment.- 1.3 Determinants of self-employment in the literature.- 1.3.1 Firm oriented studies.- 1.3.2 Person oriented studies.- 1.3.3 Firm and person oriented studies.- 1.4 Outline of the book.- 2 Models of self-employment in a competitive market.- 2.1 The basic model.- 2.2 Different entrepreneurial abilities.- 2.3 The choice of wage-employment.- 2.4 Capital requirements.- 2.5 Demand uncertainty.- 2.6 Cost uncertainty.- 2.7 Dynamical models.- 2.8 The influence of taxation.- 2.9 Conclusion.- 3 An m-sector, n-group behavioral model of self-employment.- 3.1 Contributions of the model with respect to the literature.- 3.2 The model.- 3.2.1 Qualitative description.- 3.2.2 Production.- 3.2.3 Utility functions and risk attitude.- 3.2.4 Taxation.- 3.2.5 Occupational choice.- 3.2.6 Product demand and the supply of capital and labor.- 3.2.7 Solution of the model.- 3.3 Comparative statics in the 1-sector, n-group model.- 3.3.1 Results.- 3.3.2 Explanation of results.- 3.4 Comparative statics in the m-sector, 2-group model.- 3.4.1 Results.- 3.4.2 Explanation of results.- 3.5 Sensitivity of results.- 3.6 Conclusion.- 4 Intermezzo. Investigations of a certain class of linear complementarity problems.- 4.1 Introduction.- 4.2 Solvability of LCP's of class A.- 4.3 Some graph theoretic concepts.- 4.4 Some features of the class of matrices ?.- 4.5 Characterizations of solutions of LCP's of class A.- 4.6 A sufficient condition for uniqueness.- 4.7 Major findings and discussion.- 4.8 Importance of the results for the model of self-employment.- Appendix A.- Appendix B.- 5 From the general-equilibrium model to a probabilistic-choice model.- 5.1 An alternative production function.- 5.2 Consequences for the model.- 5.3 The probabilistic-choice model.- 5.4 Conclusion.- 6 Two empirical applications.- 6.1 Comparable empirical studies.- 6.2 The model.- 6.3 Empirical application using the Brabant survey.- 6.3.1 Description of the data set.- 6.3.2 Specification of the variables.- 6.3.3 Empirical results.- 6.4 Empirical application using the economists survey.- 6.4.1 Description of the survey.- 6.4.2 Specification of the variables.- 6.4.3 Empirical results.- 6.5 Conclusion.- 7 Nomenklatura, state monopoly and private enterprise.- 7.1 Introduction.- 7.2 The basic model.- 7.3 The choice between the two regimes.- 7.4 The impact of taxation.- 7.5 Political pluralism.- 7.6 Conclusion.- 8 Summary.- References.- Author index.- List of symbols.