When Automation Hits Jobs: Entrepreneurship as an Alternative Career Path

This dataset accompanies the study "When Automation Hits Jobs: Entrepreneurship as an Alternative Career Path". It contains longitudinal data constructed from the Current Population Survey (CPS), merged with external measures of occupational automation exposure, including industrial robots, AI exposure, and task-based automation risk indices. The dataset tracks workers' transitions into different forms of entrepreneurship, distinguishing between opportunity-driven (incorporated) and necessity-driven (unincorporated) self-employment, in relation to their automation exposure. It includes demographic variables (e.g., gender, education), employment history, and regional labor market conditions, covering the period from 2009 to 2021.