A puzzling feature of entrepreneurship is that many individuals are self-employed even though they would earn more in paid employment. To shed light on this puzzle, we examine the role of personality traits in determining entrepreneurial decisions and earnings. We estimate a model in which...

We construct a structural model of entry into self-employment to evaluate the impact of policies supporting entrepreneurship. Previous work has recognized that workers may opt for self-employment due to the nonpecuniary benefits of running a business and not necessarily because they are good at...

Support schemes for unemployed persons aiming to become self-employed have been recently reformed several times. In 2003, the "start-up-subsidy" (Existenzgründungszuschuss) was added to the existing "bridging-allowance" (Überbrückungsgeld) and the two programs to-gether led to a strong...

Die Gründungsförderung für Arbeitslose ist inzwischen ein Gebiet zu dem zahlreiche Forschungsergebnisse vorliegen. Das gilt allerdings noch nicht für arbeitslose erwerbsfähige Hilfebedürftige. Seit der Einführung des Sozialgesetzbuches II können sie im Falle der Aufnahme einer...

This study regards the implementation of a new start-up subsidy (Gründungszuschuss) for unemployment insurance (UI) benefit recipients in Germany. With its introduction five years ago the new programme replaced two distinct programmes (Ich-AG, Überbrückungsgeld) that promoted transitions from...