"Der Aufsatz präsentiert Ergebnisse einer Befragung zu Unterschieden der Arbeitsproduktivität in 104 mittelständischen Betrieben Ost- und Westdeutschlands. Im Mittel beträgt die Arbeitsproduktivität der ostdeutschen Betriebe derzeit etwa 45% des westdeutschen Niveaus; berücksichtigt man...

We investigate the role played by different fields of academic knowledge and various types of higher education institutions in the emergence of innovative start-ups in a region. We show that education and research in the applied and natural sciences have the strongest effect on the emergence of...

We apply a multi-level approach to analyze the effect of three groups of determinants on new firm formation simultaneously: industry, location and changes over time. The data are for West Germany and cover the 1983-97 period. Our analysis indicates, that innovation activities and the...

New firm location decisions, relative to incumbents may be based on a choice between two types of advantages: natural advantages or those that arise from social embeddedness, the latter of which may particularly include knowledge spillovers. We analyze the relative importance of geographically...

We analyze the extent to which endogenous cultural amenities affect the spatial equilibrium share of high-human-capital employees. To overcome endogeneity, we draw on a quasi-natural experiment in German history and exploit the exogenous spatial distribution of baroque opera houses built as a...

We analyze the effect of industry, region, and time on new businesssurvival rates by means of a multi-dimensional approach. The data relateto West German districts in the 1983-2000 period. The survival chancesof start-ups tend to be relatively low in industries characterized by ahigh minimum...

We use the historical self-employment rate as an indicator of a regional culture of entrepreneurship and link this measure to economic growth in recent periods. The results indicate that German regions with a high level of entrepreneurship in the mid-1920s have higher start-up rates about 80...

This article deals with applying the knowledge production function approach to the measuring and the comparison of the quality of regional innovation systems. It is argued that an embeddedness in a well-functioning innovation system should result in a relatively high propensity to innovate and a...

We investigate the persistence of levels of self-employment and new business formation in different time periods and under different framework conditions. The analysis shows that high levels of regional self-employment and new business formation tend to be persistent for periods as long as 80...

Often, a person will become an entrepreneur only after a period of dependent employment, suggesting that occupational choices precede entrepreneurial choices. We investigate the relationship between occupational choice and self-employment. The findings suggest that the occupational choice of...