Seminar Self-employment within the firm Econometrics and applied micro seminar Add to calendar 2026-01-26 11:00 2026-01-26 12:15 Europe/Rome Self-employment within the firm Conference Room Villa La Fonte YYYY-MM-DD Print Share: Share on Facebook Share on BlueSky Share on X Share on LinkedIn Send by email Scheduled dates Jan 26 2026 11:00 - 12:15 CET Conference Room, Villa La Fonte Organised by Department of Economics This seminar features a paper presentation by Vittorio Bassi (University of Southern California). We study the internal organisation of manufacturing firms in Uganda. We measure what people do within firms and find limited specialisation, far below what is feasible given the prevailing production process and average firm size of 5.7 workers. We build and estimate an occupational choice model in which firm size, productivity, and specialisation arise endogenously. The model shows that firms in this setting are largely 'self-employment in disguise' and generate just a 20% productivity gain over literal self-employment. In a counterfactual economy with full specialisation, the same aggregate output can be produced with an average firm size of only 1.6.Jointly with J. H. Lee, A. Peter, T. Porzio, R. Sen and E. Tugume