This paper contributes to the policy-relevant question whether self-employment is a way outof (long-term) unemployment …. We estimate the relationship between the entry rate into selfemploymentand previous (long-term) unemployment on the basis …

Germany, as most other European countries, has been plagued by a persistently high level of long-term unemployment … since the early 1980's. In contrast, long-term unemployment is much less of a problem in the United States. One potential … reason for the different structure of unemployment relates to institutional differences in unemployment compensation systems …

for the dramatic decline in employment and the unprecedented increase in unemployment in the east German economy. …