Income Mobility of Owners of Small Businesses when Boundaries between Occupations are Vague

(Thoresen and Alstadsæter, 2008). Descriptions in Figure 1 accord with this; we see a decrease in the
number of self-employed, a stable number of closely held firms and a substantial increase in the
number of widely held firms.

Figure 1. Number of wage earners and self-employed 1993-2003, number of widely held and
closely held firms 1995-2005

Number of persons in 1,000
2 500

2 000

Wage earners
Self-employed

1 000

500

0
1993   1994   1995   1996   1997   1998   1999   2000   2001   2002   2003

Number of firms
120 000 »

100 000

80 000                                           ^^^^≡Closely held firms

≠                    ^{- -} Widely held firms

60 000

40 000

20 000

0

1993   1994   1995   1996   1997   1998   1999   2000   2001   2002   2003

Sources: Labour force survey, Income statistics for limited companies

The data on which this study is mainly based are from the Income Statistics on Persons and
Families, see Statistics Norway (2006a). These statistics hold register-based information on the whole
population, based primarily on income tax returns filed with the Directorate of Taxes' Register of
Personal Tax-Payers. Other sources provide many of the demographic variables. Thus, as these data

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