Ethnic Minority Self-Employment in Germany: Geographical Distribution and Determinants of Regional Variation

In Germany self-employment among foreigners increased significantly in recent years. We study the geographical distribution of ethnic minority self-employment in Germany and find determinants for variations in start-up activities across 440 administrative German regions. We analyze the Statistic of Business Notifications and provide an extensive overview about start-up activities of foreigners in the time period 2001-2005. Moreover we apply a count data model on the number of business registrations in a particular region. We find that business foundations by foreigners are mainly enhanced by population growth, a higher population density and a large fraction of foreigners on overall population.