The outcome of coaching and training for self-employment: A statistical evaluation of non-financial support schemes for unemployment business founders in Germany

This paper focuses on the question of whether improving the competence of new business founders by means of coaching and training programs enhances the duration of self-employment. In our analysis we focus on support activities that are provided in addition to a financial subsidy and which mainly focus on providing external expertise for founders who started a business from a position of unemployment. We find that the inflow into the related schemes is strongly determined by regional patterns and time while individual characteristics are less important. This reflects a particular regional specialization in the set-up of the promotion of self-employment. A statistical matching approach is used to control for selectivity and is performed in a way that explicitly takes into account differences across regions and over time. The results show that treatment effects tend to be insignificant in statistical and economic terms. We also find evidence that external expertise reduces the duration of self-employment.