The vast majority of firms in developing economies are micro and small enterprises owned by families whose members also provide the labour to the units. Often, they fail to grow in size even with the relaxation of credit constraints. In this paper, we show that frictions in the labour market...

The paper quantifies the role of factors associated with the growth (or decline) of micro and small businesses in European economies. The growth is related to employment and value added in enterprises as well as to ten institutional variables. We test the data for consistency of behavioural...

The policy debate in recent years has increasingly focused on issues concerning size distribution of firms and employment. It is often claimed that we are approaching a new economic era where large enterprises have lost their importance in developed economies. This raises the question of what we...

Im Zuge der zunehmenden Internationalisierung der deutschen Wirtschaft ist auch eine wachsende Exportorientierung der deutschen Dienstleistungswirtschaft zu erwarten. Über das Exportverhalten von Anbietern unternehmensnaher Dienstleistungen ist jedoch im Gegensatz zu Industrieunternehmen...

This book explores the relationship between families, firms, and regions and the extent to which these relationships contribute to regional economic and social development. Although family business participation in economic activities has been a common phenomenon since pre-industrial societies,...

This contribution addresses the substantial tax privilege for businesses introduced by the German Inheritance Tax Act 2009. Advocates of the vast or even entire tax exemption for businesses stress the potential damage of the inheritance tax on businesses, as those often lack liquidity to meet...