This research note examines the relationship between start-up rates and GDP per capita growth in urban and rural regions in Germany. Hereby, we take into account that urban and rural areas differ markedly in their resource endowment for entrepreneurship, which might be responsible for different...

This paper utilizes German tax data to present evidence about the direct and indirect effects of new firm formation. Cohort analysis is applied to investigate survival, sales, inputs, and value added of start-up firms. Most drop-outs occur in the early years. We show that start-up...

This paper analyzes how statutory entitlements to maternity or parental leave affect female entry into self-employment after childbirth. For our estimations we use comprehensive panel data for German adults born between 1944 and 1989. We find that utilization of statutory parental leave...

It is well known that the self-employed are over-represented at the bottom as well as the top of the income distribution. This paper shifts the focus from the income situation of the self-employed to the distributive effects of a change in self-employment rates. With representative German data...

Young firms are known to grow at a faster rate than incumbents. With administrative firm data from Germany, we show that the higher growth rates indeed translate into upward mobility within the firm size distribution. Young firms are therefore not only able to catch up, but also to grow larger...

Established early stage investors decide to invest in new ventures after evaluating the propensity of success and the risk of failure. Consequently, it is of considerable importance that the new business owners have substantial 'skin in the game' and are thus highly committed to business...

We ask if the self-employed not only make professional decisions but also interfere in the private decisions of their partners. With German panel data, we show a positive relationship between complaints about interference and the self-employment status of partners, which indicates that the...

Due to the pandemic-induced economic crisis, self-employed individuals are currently suering considerable income losses. The self-employed and the members in their households usually form an economic unit. As a consequence, the income cuts not only aect the self-employed themselves but also the...