The process of the entrepreneurial decision is decomposed in seven engagement levels ranging from "never thought about starting a business" to "gave up", "thinking about it" , "taking steps for starting up" , "having a young business" , "having an older business" and "no longer being an...

This paper investigates the dynamic relationship between self-employment and unemployment rates. On the one hand, high unemployment rates may lead to start-up activity of self-employed individuals (the “refugee” effect). On the other hand, higher rates of self-employment may indicate...

This paper examines the relationship between entrepreneurship (as measured by fluctuations in the business ownership rate) and unemployment in Japan for the period between 1972 and 2002. We find that, although Japan’s unemployment rate has been influenced by specific exogenous shocks, the...

Entrepreneurs exit their business due to selection mechanisms experienced in the market place. Next to this well known ex-post decision to exit, entrepreneurs select ex-ante whether they are willing to pursue an entrepreneurial career at all, or to give up these entrepreneurial intentions. This...

We investigate which countries have the highest potential to achieve entrepreneurial progress. This progress is defined using an entrepreneurial ladder with five successive steps: “never thought about starting a business”, “thinking about starting a business”, “taking steps to start a...

We assess the relevance of formal education for the productivity of the self-employed and distinguish between opportunity entrepreneurs, who voluntarily pursue a business opportunity, and necessity entrepreneurs, who lack alternative employment options. We expect differences in the returns to...

Human capital has been shown to be highly important in the venture creation process. In this study, we account for the fact that human capital on the individual and regional levels may be interrelated in affecting entrepreneurship. We use German survey data, which allow us to focus on a specific...

Mithilfe der Daten des Mikrozensus untersucht dieser Bericht die Einkünfte von Selbständigen und unterscheidet dabei zwischen Solo-Selbständigen und Selbständigen mit weiteren Beschäftigten. Danach lohnt sich der Schritt in die Selbständigkeit finanziell für viele, denn auch...

We assess the relevance of formal education for the productivity of the self-employed and distinguish between opportunity entrepreneurs, who voluntarily pursue a business opportunity, and necessity entrepreneurs, who lack alternative employment options. We expect differences in the returns to...

Experimental evidence reveals that there is a strong willingness to trust and to act in both positively and negatively reciprocal ways. So far it is rarely analyzed whether these variables of social cognition influence everyday decision making behavior. We focus on entrepreneurs who are...