Fostering and supporting start-up businesses by unemployed persons has become anincreasingly important issue in many European countries. These new ventures are beingsupported by various governmental programs. Potential benefits include not only the end ofunemployment for the new entrepreneur but...

Based on representative data, the German Micro-Census, we provide an overview of thedevelopment of self-employment and entrepreneurship in Germany between 1991 and 2010,the first two decades after reunification. We investigate the socioeconomic background ofthese individuals, their education,...

Im Jahre 2003 hat sich fast eine Viertelmillion vormals Arbeitsloser mit Unterstützung des Arbeitsamtes selbstständig gemacht. Gut drei Fünftel davon starten mit Hilfe des Überbrückungsgeldes (§ 57 SGB III). Die restlichen fast 93.000 Geförderten gründen eine Ich-AG, die seit Anfang 2003...

Knapp zwei Jahre lang wurde im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für Arbeitund Soziales die Wirksamkeit der Instrumente analysiert, die die KommissionModerne Dienstleistungen am Arbeitsmarkt im Jahre 2002 vorgeschlagenhatte, und die nachfolgend als „Hartz-Reformen“ umgesetzt worden...

Entrepreneurs, creators of new firms, are a rare species. Even in innovation-driven economies, only 1-2% of the work force starts a business in any given year. Yet entrepreneurs, particularly innovative entrepreneurs, are vital to the competitiveness of the economy and may establish new jobs....

Why do entrepreneurship rates differ so markedly by gender? Using data from a large, representative German household panel, we investigate to what extent personality traits, human capital, and the employment history influence the start-up decision and can explain the gender gap in...

When unemployed persons go into business, they often are characterized as necessity entrepreneurs, because push factors, namely their unemployment, likely prompted their decision. In contrast to this, business founders who have been previously employed represent opportunity entrepreneurs because...

When unemployed persons go into business, they often are characterized as necessity entrepreneurs, because push factors, namely their unemployment, likely prompted their decision. In contrast to this, business founders who have been previously employed represent opportunity entrepreneurs because...

The influence of risk aversion on the decision to become self-employed is a much discussed topic in the entrepreneurial literature. Conventional wisdom asserts that the role model of an entrepreneur requires to make risky decisions in uncertain environments and hence that more risk-averse...

Risk attitudes have an impact on not only the decision to become an entrepreneur but also the survival and failure rates of entrepreneurs. Whereas recent research underpins the theoretical proposition of a positive correlation between risk attitudes and the decision to become an entrepreneur,...