@techreport{CaliendoTuebbicke2021, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Caliendo, Marco and T{\"u}bbicke, Stefan}, title = {Design and Effectiveness of Start-Up Subsidies}, series = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, journal = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, number = {30}, issn = {2628-653X}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-50005}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-500056}, pages = {20}, year = {2021}, abstract = {While a growing body of literature finds positive impacts of Start-Up Subsidies (SUS) on labor market outcomes of participants, little is known about how the design of these programs shapes their effectiveness and hence how to improve policy. As experimental variation in program design is unavailable, we exploit the 2011 reform of the current German SUS program for the unemployed which strengthened case-workers' discretionary power, increased entry requirements and reduced monetary support. We estimate the impact of the reform on the program's effectiveness using samples of participants and non-participants from before and after the reform. To control for time-constant unobserved heterogeneity as well as differential selection patterns based on observable characteristics over time, we combine Difference-in-Differences with inverse probability weighting using covariate balancing propensity scores. Holding participants' observed characteristics as well as macroeconomic conditions constant, the results suggest that the reform was successful in raising employment effects on average. As these findings may be contaminated by changes in selection patterns based on unobserved characteristics, we assess our results using simulation-based sensitivity analyses and find that our estimates are highly robust to changes in unobserved characteristics. Hence, the reform most likely had a positive impact on the effectiveness of the program, suggesting that increasing entry requirements and reducing support in-creased the program's impacts while reducing the cost per participant.}, language = {en} } @techreport{CaliendoTuebbicke2019, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Caliendo, Marco and T{\"u}bbicke, Stefan}, title = {Do Start-Up Subsidies for the Unemployed Affect Participants' Well-Being?}, series = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, journal = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, number = {14}, issn = {2628-653X}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-43746}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-437468}, pages = {47}, year = {2019}, abstract = {We estimate the long-term effects of start-up subsidies (SUS) for the unemployed on subjective outcome indicators of well-being, as measured by the participants' satisfaction in different domains. This extends previous analyses of the current German SUS program ("Gr{\"u}ndungszuschuss") that focused on objective outcomes - such as employment and income - and allows us to make a more complete judgment about the overall effects of SUS at the individual level. This is especially important because subsidizing the transition into self-employment may have unintended adverse effects on participants' well-being due to its risky nature and lower social security protection, especially in the long run. Having access to linked administrative-survey data providing us with rich information on pre-treatment characteristics, we base our analysis on the conditional independence assumption and use propensity score matching to estimate causal effects within the potential outcomes framework. We find long-term positive effects on job satisfaction but negative effects on individuals' satisfaction with their social security situation. Further findings suggest that the negative effect on satisfaction with social security may be driven by negative effects on unemployment and retirement insurance coverage. Our heterogeneity analysis reveals substantial variation in effects across gender, age groups and skill levels. The sensitivity analyses show that these findings are highly robust.}, language = {en} } @techreport{CaliendoTuebbicke2019, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Caliendo, Marco and T{\"u}bbicke, Stefan}, title = {New Evidence on Long-Term Effects of Start-Up Subsidies}, series = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, journal = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, number = {6}, issn = {2628-653X}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-42679}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-426798}, pages = {41}, year = {2019}, abstract = {The German start-up subsidy (SUS) program for the unemployed has recently undergone a major make-over, altering its institutional setup, adding an additional layer of selection and leading to ambiguous predictions of the program's effectiveness. Using propensity score matching (PSM) as our main empirical approach, we provide estimates of long-term effects of the post-reform subsidy on individual employment prospects and labor market earnings up to 40 months after entering the program. Our results suggest large and persistent long-term effects of the subsidy on employment probabilities and net earned income. These effects are larger than what was estimated for the pre-reform program. Extensive sensitivity analyses within the standard PSM framework reveal that the results are robust to different choices regarding the implementation of the weighting procedure and also with respect to deviations from the conditional independence assumption. As a further assessment of the results' sensitivity, we go beyond the standard selection-on-observables approach and employ an instrumental variable setup using regional variation in the likelihood of receiving treatment. Here, we exploit the fact that the reform increased the discretionary power of local employment agencies in allocating active labor market policy funds, allowing us to obtain a measure of local preferences for SUS as the program of choice. The results based on this approach give rise to similar estimates. Thus, our results indicating that SUS are still an effective active labor market program after the reform do not appear to be driven by "hidden bias".}, language = {en} }