Satisfaction guaranteed? Life satisfaction, institutional factors, and self-employment

There has been a recent growing interest in the relationship between self-employment and life satisfaction. Using an institutional theory lens, in a multilevel model we test the association between shared prosperity and business freedom on life satisfaction reported by self-employed. Specifically, with increasing shared prosperity, self-employed individuals report higher life satisfaction. Furthermore, in countries with higher shared prosperity and greater business freedom, self-employed report a higher life satisfaction. We discuss the implications of our findings and provide future research directions into the link between life satisfaction, institutional factors, and self-employment.