TY - JOUR A1 - Sorgner, Alina A1 - Fritsch, Michael A1 - Kritikos, Alexander T1 - Do entrepreneurs really earn less? JF - Small business economics : an international journal N2 - Based on large representative German household survey data, we compare incomes of the self-employed with those of paid employees. We find that the entrepreneurial income gap is largest for those holding a tertiary degree, but in two directions: positive for employers (self-employed with further employees) and negative for solo entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs holding a tertiary degree also face the greatest income variation. However, some solo self-employed earn more than their employed counterparts, in particular those with a university entrance degree as the highest level of education. KW - Income KW - Entrepreneurship KW - Self-employment KW - Germany Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-017-9874-6 SN - 0921-898X SN - 1573-0913 VL - 49 SP - 251 EP - 272 PB - Springer CY - Dordrecht ER - 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 -