TY  - JOUR
A1  - Fritsch, Michael
A1  - Kritikos, Alexander
A1  - Sorgner, Alina
T1  - Why did self-employment increase so strongly in Germany?
JF  - Entrepreneurship and regional development
N2  - Germany experienced a unique rise in the level of self-employment in the first two decades following unification. Applying the nonlinear Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition technique, we find that the main factors driving these changes in the overall level of self-employment are demographic developments, the shift towards service sector employment and a larger share of population holding a tertiary degree. While these factors explain most of the development in self-employment with employees and the overall level of self-employment in West Germany, their explanatory power is much lower for the stronger increase in solo self-employment and in self-employment in former socialist East Germany.
KW  - self-employment
KW  - nonlinear Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition technique
KW  - entrepreneurship
KW  - Germany
KW  - L26
KW  - D22
Y1  - 2015
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1080/08985626.2015.1048310
SN  - 0898-5626
SN  - 1464-5114
VL  - 27
IS  - 5-6
SP  - 307
EP  - 333
PB  - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
CY  - Abingdon
ER  -