We analyze the effectiveness of public works programs (PWP, Arbeitsbeschaffungsmaßnahmen) in east Germany as measured by their effects on individual future reemployment probabilities in regular jobs. These are estimated by discrete hazard rate models on the basis of individual-level panel data....

'Marginal employment', i.e. employment at low working hours and earnings not covered bysocial security, has been gaining importance in the German economy over the past decade.Using a large newly available panel data set and statistical matching techniques, we analysethe effects of marginal...

We develop a structural multi-factor labour demand model which distinguishes between eightlabour categories including non-standard types of employment such as marginalemployment. The model is estimated for both the number of workers and total working hoursusing a new panel data set...

This paper contributes to the policy-relevant question whether self-employment is a way outof (long-term) unemployment. We estimate the relationship between the entry rate into selfemploymentand previous (long-term) unemployment on the basis of pseudo-panel data forGermany in the period 1996-2002...

This paper contributes to the policy-relevant question whether self-employment is a way out of (long-term) unemployment. We estimate the relationship between the entry rate into self-employment and previous (long-term) unemployment on the basis of pseudo-panel data for Germany in the period...

Entrepreneurial activity is often regarded as an engine for economic growth and job creation. Through tax policy, governments possess a potential lever to influence the decisions of economic agents to start and close small businesses. In Germany, the top marginal income tax rates were reduced...

Folklore has it that the comparatively low proportion of self-employed in Germany is in part due to a habit that might be termed 'stigmatisation of failure': taking a second chance to build one's own firm after failing as a self-employed is said to be much more difficult here than in other...

In a recent paper Edward Lazear proposed the jack-of-all-trades view of entrepreneurship. Based on a coherent model of the choice between self-employment and paid employment he shows that having a background in a large number of different roles increases the probability of becoming an...

Using a large recent representative sample of the German population this paper contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by empirically testing the hypothesis that young and small firms are hothouses for nascent entrepreneurs. The empirical estimation takes the rare events nature of...

In western industrialized countries men are on average more than twice as active in entrepreneurship as women. Based on data from a recent representative survey of the adult population in Germany this paper uses an empirical model for the decision to become selfemployed to test for differences...