entrepreneurship in Germany between 1991 and 2010, the first two decades after reunification. We investigate the socioeconomic … increase in self-employment in Germany by 40 percent which can partly be attributed to the transformation process of East … Germany and to the shift to the service sector. We notice a yearly start-up rate of 1 percent among the working population …

Germany experienced a unique rise in the level of self-employment in the first two decades following unification … 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. …

We analyse the convergence and heterogeneity of living standards between East and West Germany since unification. Based …, including retirees and the unemployed, of East and West Germany over the fifteen years for which data are available. Using a … highest negative income gap. This probably reflects out-migration from East Germany by the young and highly skilled. On the …

Based on representative micro data for Germany, we compare the incomes of self-employed with those of wage workers. Our …