@article{BorckFossenFreieretal.2015, author = {Borck, Rainald and Fossen, Frank M. and Freier, Ronny and Martin, Thorsten}, title = {Race to the debt trap? - Spatial econometric evidence on debt in German municipalities}, series = {Regional science and urban economics}, volume = {53}, journal = {Regional science and urban economics}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0166-0462}, doi = {10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2015.04.003}, pages = {20 -- 37}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Through an intertemporal budget constraint, jurisdictions may gain advantages in tax and spending competition by 'competing' on debt. While the existing spatial econometric literature focuses on tax and spending competition, very little is known about spatial interaction via public debt. If jurisdictions compete for mobile capital to finance public spending, they may compete in debt levels as well as taxes. We use a theoretical model to derive the reaction of jurisdictions' debt levels to their neighbors' debts. We then estimate the spatial interdependence of public debt among German municipalities using a panel on municipalities in the two largest German states from 1999 to 2006. We find significant and robust interaction effects between debt levels of neighboring municipalities, which we compare to spatial tax and spending interactions. The results indicate that a municipality increases its per capita debt by 16-33 Euro as a reaction to an increase of 100 Euro in neighboring municipalities. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.}, language = {en} } @article{CaliendoFossenKritikos2021, author = {Caliendo, Marco and Fossen, Frank M. and Kritikos, Alexander}, title = {Personality characteristics and the decision to hire}, series = {Industrial and corporate change}, volume = {31}, journal = {Industrial and corporate change}, number = {3}, publisher = {Oxford University Press}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0960-6491}, doi = {10.1093/icc/dtab062}, pages = {736 -- 761}, year = {2021}, abstract = {As the policy debate on entrepreneurship increasingly centers on firm growth in terms of job creation, it is important to understand whether the personality of entrepreneurs drives the first hiring in their firms. Using the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), we analyze to what extent personality traits influence the probability of becoming an employer. The results indicate that personality matters. Risk tolerance unfolds the strongest influence on hiring, shortening the time until entrepreneurs hire their first employee; the effect size of a one-standard-deviation increase in risk tolerance is similar to that of having a university degree. Moreover, individuals who are more open to experience, more conscientious, and more trustful are more likely to hire upon establishing their business.}, language = {en} } @techreport{CaliendoFossenKritikos2019, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Caliendo, Marco and Fossen, Frank M. and Kritikos, Alexander}, title = {What Makes an Employer?}, series = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, journal = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, number = {13}, issn = {2628-653X}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-43736}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-437360}, year = {2019}, abstract = {As the policy debate on entrepreneurship increasingly centers on firm growth in terms of job creation, it is important to better understand which variables influence the first hiring decision and which ones influence the subsequent survival as an employer. Using the German Socio-economic Panel (SOEP), we analyze what role individual characteristics of entrepreneurs play in sustainable job creation. While human and social capital variables positively influence the hiring decision and the survival as an employer in the same direction, we show that none of the personality traits affect the two outcomes in the same way. Some traits are only relevant for survival as an employer but do not influence the hiring decision, other traits even unfold a revolving door effect, in the sense that employers tend to fail due to the same characteristics that positively influenced their hiring decision.}, language = {en} } @article{CaliendoFossenKritikosetal.2015, author = {Caliendo, Marco and Fossen, Frank M. and Kritikos, Alexander and Wetter, Miriam}, title = {The Gender Gap in Entrepreneurship: Not just a Matter of Personality}, series = {CESifo economic studies : a joint initiative of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit{\"a}t and Ifo Institute for Economic Research}, volume = {61}, journal = {CESifo economic studies : a joint initiative of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit{\"a}t and Ifo Institute for Economic Research}, number = {1}, publisher = {Oxford Univ. Press}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {1610-241X}, doi = {10.1093/cesifo/ifu023}, pages = {202 -- 238}, year = {2015}, abstract = {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 entrepreneurship. Applying a decomposition analysis, we observe that the higher risk aversion among women explains a large share of the entrepreneurial gender gap. We also find an education effect contributing to the gender difference. In contrast, the Big Five model and the current employment state have effects in the opposite direction, meaning that the gender gap in entrepreneurial entry would be even larger if women had the same scores and the same employment status as men. (JEL codes: L26, J16, D81, J24, M13).}, language = {en} } @article{FossenMartin2018, author = {Fossen, Frank M. and Martin, Thorsten}, title = {Entrepreneurial dynamics over space and time}, series = {Regional science and urban economics}, volume = {70}, journal = {Regional science and urban economics}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0166-0462}, doi = {10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2018.04.004}, pages = {204 -- 214}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Entrepreneurship is a regional and persistent phenomenon. We jointly investigate spatial dependence and serial dynamics of new business formation. Using panel data from all 402 German counties for 1996-2011, we estimate dynamic spatial panel data models of start-up activity in the high-tech and manufacturing industries. We consider regions of different sizes and systematically search for the most suitable spatial weights matrices. We find substantial spatial dependence as well as time persistence of start-up activity, especially in the high-tech industry. This suggests that local start-up activity has positive extemal effects and that entrepreneurship policy could play an efficiency-enhancing role.}, language = {en} }