Getting back into the labor market: The effects of start-up subsidies for unemployed females

Arbeitspapier

A shortage of skilled labor and low female labor market participation are problems many developed countries have to face. Beside activating inactive women, one possible solution is to support the re-integration of unemployed women. Due to female-specific labor market constraints (preferences for exible working hours, discrimination), this is a difficult task, and the question arises whether active labor market policies (ALMP) are an appropriate tool to do so. Promoting self-employment among the unemployed might be promising. Starting their own business might give women more independence and exibility in allocating their time to work and family. Access to long-term informative data allows us to close existing research gaps, and we investigate the impact of two start-up programs on long-run labor market and fertility outcomes of female participants. We find that start-up programs persistently integrate former unemployed women into the labor market and partly improve their income situations. The impact on fertility is less detrimental than for traditional ALMP programs.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: DIW Discussion Papers ; No. 1260

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies: Public Policy ; Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General ; Project Evaluation; Social Discount Rate
• Subject: Start-Up Subsidies ; Evaluation ; Long-Term Effects ; Female Labor-Force Participation ; Fertility

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Caliendo, Marco ; Künn, Steffen
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW)
• (where): Berlin
• (when): 2012

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/68449
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET