Who starts a business and who is self-employed in Germany

Arbeitspapier

Based on representative data, the German Micro-Census, we provide an overview of the development of self-employment and entrepreneurship in Germany between 1991 and 2011, the first two decades after reunification. We investigate the socio-economic background of these individuals, their education, previous employment status, and their income level. We observe a unique 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 (almost 20 percent of them being re-starters), a decision that pays for the majority of individuals in terms of income. Contrary to other countries, in Germany there is a positive relationship between educational levels and the probability of starting a business.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Jena Economic Research Papers ; No. 2012,001

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Entrepreneurship ; Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
• Subject: entrepreneurship ; self-employment ; start-ups ; Germany ; Selbstständige ; Unternehmer ; Unternehmensgründung ; Bildungsniveau ; Schätzung ; Deutschland

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Fritsch, Michael ; Kritikos, Alexander ; Rusakova, Alina
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Max Planck Institute of Economics
• (where): Jena
• (when): 2012

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/56862
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET