Why Did Self-Employment Increase so Strongly in Germany?

Michael Fritsch (), Alexander Kritikos and Alina Sorgner

No 8818, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Germany experienced a unique rise in the level of self-employment in the first two decades following unification. Applying the non-linear Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition technique, we find that the main factors driving these changes in the overall level of self-employment are demographic developments, the shift towards service sector employment, and a larger share of population holding a tertiary degree. While these factors explain most of the development in self-employment with employees and the overall level of self-employment in West Germany, their explanatory power is much lower for the stronger increase of solo self-employment and of self-employment in former socialist East Germany.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; non-linear Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition technique; self-employment; Germany (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D22 L26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2015-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ent, nep-eur and nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (41)

Forthcoming - published in: Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 2015, 67 (2), 307-333

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Related works:
Journal Article: Why did self-employment increase so strongly in Germany? (2015)
Working Paper: Why Did Self-Employment Increase so Strongly in Germany? (2015)
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