TY  - JOUR
A1  - Caliendo, Marco
A1  - Künn, Steffen
A1  - Weissenberger, Martin
T1  - Catching up or lagging behind?
BT  - the long-term business and innovation potential of subsidized start-ups out of unemployment
JF  - Research policy : policy, management and economic studies of science, technology and innovation
N2  - From an active labor market policy perspective, start-up subsidies for unemployed individuals are very effective in improving long-term labor market outcomes for participants. From a business perspective, however, the assessment of these public programs is less clear since they might attract individuals with low entrepreneurial abilities and produce businesses with low survival rates and little contribution to job creation, economic growth, and innovation. In this paper, we use a rich data set to compare participants of a German start-up subsidy program for unemployed individuals to a group of regular founders who started from non-unemployment and did not receive the subsidy. The data allows us to analyze their business performance up until 40 months after business formation. We find that formerly subsidized founders lag behind not only in survival and job creation, but especially also in innovation activities. The gaps in these business outcomes are relatively constant or even widening over time. Hence, we do not see any indication of catching up in the longer run. While the gap in survival can be entirely explained by initial differences in observable start-up characteristics, the gap in business development remains and seems to be the result of restricted access to capital as well as differential business strategies and dynamics. Considering these conflicting results for the assessment of the subsidy program from an ALMP and business perspective, policy makers need to carefully weigh the costs and benefits of such a strategy to find the right policy mix.
KW  - entrepreneurship
KW  - start-up subsidies
KW  - business growth
KW  - innovation
KW  - job
KW  - creation
Y1  - 2020
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2020.104053
SN  - 0048-7333
SN  - 1873-7625
VL  - 49
IS  - 10
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Caliendo, Marco
A1  - Tübbicke, Stefan
T1  - Design and effectiveness of start-up subsidies
BT  - evidence from a policy reform in Germany
JF  - Economic analysis and policy
N2  - 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 caseworkers' 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 increased the program's impacts while reducing the cost per participant. (C) 2021 Economic Society of Australia, Queensland. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
KW  - start-up subsidies
KW  - institutions
KW  - policy reform
KW  - difference-in-differences
Y1  - 2021
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eap.2021.02.015
SN  - 0313-5926
VL  - 70
SP  - 333
EP  - 340
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Caliendo, Marco
A1  - Tübbicke, Stefan
T1  - New evidence on long-term effects of start-up subsidies
BT  - matching estimates and their robustness
JF  - Empirical economics
N2  - The German start-up subsidy (SUS) program for the unemployed has recently undergone a major makeover, 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."
KW  - start-up subsidies
KW  - policy reform
KW  - matching
KW  - instrumental variables
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00181-019-01701-9
SN  - 0377-7332
SN  - 1435-8921
VL  - 59
IS  - 4
SP  - 1605
EP  - 1631
PB  - Physica-Verlag
CY  - Heidelberg
ER  - 
TY  - THES
A1  - Hogenacker, Jens
T1  - Essays on the transition from unemployment to employment with a special emphasis on start-up subsidies in Germany
T1  - Essays über den Übergang von Arbeitslosikgeit zu Beschäftigung mit einem Fokus auf Gründungsförderung in Deutschland
N2  - The promotion of self-employment as part of active labor market policies is considered to be one of the most important unemployment support schemes in Germany. Against this background the main part of this thesis contributes to the evaluation of start-up support schemes within ALMP. Chapter 2 and 4 focus on the evaluation of the New Start-up Subsidy (NSUS, Gründungszuschuss) in its first version (from 2006 to the end of 2011). The chapters offer an advancement of the evaluation of start-up subsidies in Germany, and are based on a novel data set of administrative data from the Federal Employment Agency that was enriched with information from a telephone survey. Chapter 2 provides a thorough descriptive analysis of the NSUS that consists of two parts. First, the participant structure of the program is compared with the one of two former programs. In a second step, the study conducts an in-depth characterization of the participants of the NSUS focusing on founding motives, the level of start-up capital and equity used as well as the sectoral distribution of the new business. Furthermore, the business survival, income situation of founders and job creation by the new businesses is analyzed during a period of 19 months after start-up. The contribution of Chapter 4 is to introduce a new explorative data set that allows comparing subsidized start-ups out of unemployment with non-subsidized business start-ups that were founded by individuals who were not unemployed at the time of start-up. Because previous evaluation studies commonly used eligible non-participants amongst the unemployed as control group to assess the labor market effects of the start-up subsidies, the corresponding results hence referred to the effectiveness of the ALMP measure, but could not address the question whether the subsidy leads to similarly successful and innovative businesses compared to non-subsidized businesses. An assessment of this economic/growth aspect is also important, since the subsidy might induce negative effects that may outweigh the positive effects from an ALMP perspective. The main results of Chapter 4 indicate that subsidized founders seem to have no shortages in terms of formal education, but exhibit less employment and industry-specific experience, and are less likely to benefit from intergenerational transmission of start-ups. Moreover, the study finds evidence that necessity start-ups are over-represented among subsidized business founders, which suggests disadvantages in terms of business preparation due to possible time restrictions right before start-up. Finally, the study also detects more capital constraints among the unemployed, both in terms of the availability of personal equity and access to loans. With respect to potential differences between both groups in terms of business development over time, the results indicate that subsidized start-ups out of unemployment face higher business survival rates 19 months after start-up. However, they lag behind regular business founders in terms of income, business growth, and innovation. The arduous data collection process for start-up activities of non-subsidized founders for Chapter 4 made apparent that Germany is missing a central reporting system for business formations. Additionally, the different start-up reporting systems that do exist exhibit substantial discrepancies in data processing procedures, and therefore also in absolute numbers concerning the overall start-up activity. Chapter 3 is therefore placed in front of Chapter 4 and has the aim to provide a comprehensive review of the most important German start-up reporting systems. The second part of the thesis consists of Chapter 5 which contributes to the literature on determinants of job search behavior of the unemployed individuals by analyzing the effectiveness of internet search with regard to search behavior of unemployed individuals and subsequent job quality. The third and final part of the thesis outlines why the German labor market reacted in a very mild fashion to the Great Recession 2008/09, especially compared to other countries. Chapter 6 describes current economic trends of the labor market in light of general trends in the European Union, and reveals some of the main associated challenges. Thereafter, recent reforms of the main institutional settings of the labor market which influence labor supply are analyzed. Finally, based on the status quo of these institutional settings, the chapter gives a brief overview of strategies to adequately combat the challenges in terms of labor supply and to ensure economic growth in the future.
N2  - Die vorliegende kumulative Dissertation leistet einen Beitrag zur Forschungsliteratur im Bereich der Evaluation aktiver Arbeitsmarktpolitik in Deutschland. Der erste und größte Teil der Dissertation besteht aus zwei voneinander unabhängigen und in sich abgeschlossenen Forschungspapieren (Kapitel 2 und 4), die sich mit der Gründungsförderung für Arbeitslose im Rechtskreis des SGB III auseinandersetzen. Die Untersuchungen konzentrieren sich dabei auf das Instrument des Gründungszuschusses (GZ) in seiner institutionellen Ausgestaltung von 2006 bis 2011. Kapitel 2 führt zunächst eine ausführliche deskriptive Analyse der Teilnehmerstruktur des Förderprogramms durch, wobei explizit auf Unterschiede zwischen dem Gründungszuschuss und früheren Gründungsförderprogrammen eingegangen wird. Die komparative Analyse zeigt, dass die Teilnehmerstrukturen des GZ nicht die gleiche Breite an gründungswilligen Personen erreicht wie beide Vorgängerprogramme. Des Weiteren scheinen mit dem GZ geförderte GründerInnen eher durch sogenannte Pull-Faktoren motiviert, waren im Durchschnitt etwas risikobereiter, setzten aber relativ weniger Eigenkapital für ihre Gründung ein. Der zweite Teil der Analyse bezieht sich vorrangig auf die Nachhaltigkeit der Förderung durch den GZ. Hier kann gezeigt werden, dass 19 Monate nach Gründung noch 75% bis 84% der geförderten Personen im Haupterwerb selbständig tätig sind. Hinsichtlich der Beschäftigungswirkungen ist allerdings erkennbar, dass die Mehrheit der noch selbständig Tätigen 19 Monate nach Gründung keine Mitarbeiter eingestellt hat. Abschließend zeigt die Analyse hinsichtlich der Existenz potentieller Mitnahmeeffekte, dass diese im Rahmen des Gründungszuschusses eine geringere Bedeutung zu haben scheinen als bisher angenommen. Bisherige Evaluationsstudien zur Gründungsförderung für Arbeitslose verwenden in der Regel arbeitslose Individuen als Kontrollgruppe, um Arbeitsmarkteffekte der Gründung zu untersuchen. Dieser Ansatz hat den Nachteil, dass nicht untersucht werden kann, ob die Gründungsförderung erfolgreiche, innovative Unternehmen generiert, die mit denen von nicht-geförderten Gründungen vergleichbar sind. Kapitel 4 schließt diese Lücke mittels eines neuen explorativen Datensatzes der den Vergleich zwischen geförderten GründerInnen aus Arbeitslosigkeit und nicht-subventionierten GründerInnen, die bei ihrer Gründung nicht arbeitslos waren erstmalig möglich macht. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass geförderte gegenüber nicht-geförderten GründerInnen keine Nachteile hinsichtlich ihrer formellen Bildung aufweisen, aber geringere arbeits- und industriespezifische Erfahrung besitzen. Zudem befinden sich unter den geförderten GründerInnen häufiger Personen, die sich aus Mangel an abhängigen Erwerbsalternativen selbständig gemacht, und sich in geringerem Umfang auf die Gründung vorbereitet haben. Geförderte GründerInnen haben zudem einen erschwerten Zugang zu Krediten und Gründungskapital. In Bezug auf die Entwicklung der Unternehmung über die Zeit lässt sich feststellen, dass geförderte GründerInnen zwar 19 Monate nach Gründung eine höhere Überlebensrate aufweisen, jedoch in Bezug auf Einkommen, Unternehmenswachstum und Innovation schlechter abschneiden. Kapitel 3 leistet einen Beitrag zur wissenschaftlichen Betrachtung des Gründungsgeschehens im Allgemeinen. Vor dem Hintergrund, dass in Deutschland keine einheitliche und repräsentative Datenquelle existiert, die das gesamte Universum an Gründungen erfasst, gibt Kapitel 3 einen umfassenden Überblick über die wichtigsten deutschen Datenquellen zum Gründungsgeschehen. Zu einem besseren Verständnis des Forschungsgegenstandes bietet das Kapitel auch einen kurzen Überblick über institutionelle Rahmenbedingungen, Konzepte und Definitionen im Zusammenhang mit Gründungsaktivitäten in Deutschland. Der zweite Teil der Dissertation besteht zunächst aus einem Aufsatz, der zur Forschungsliteratur über die Determinanten des Suchverhaltens arbeitsloser Personen beiträgt. Ausgehend von der theoretischen Annahme, dass das Internet Suchhemmnisse auf dem Arbeitsmarkt abbaut, werden der Wirkungszusammenhang zwischen der Nutzung des Internets, Reservationslöhnen, Suchanstrengungen und der Qualität der neuen abhängigen Beschäftigung untersucht. 
Der dritte Teil der Dissertation (Kapitel 6) betrachtet abschließend einen anderen Forschungsbereich aus der Arbeitsmarktforschung, in dem es die Gründe für die milde Reaktion der deutschen Wirtschaft nach der Großen Rezession 2008/2009 beleuchtet und aufzeigt, welchen zukünftigen großen Herausforderungen sich der deutsche Arbeitsmarkt dennoch gegenübersieht.
KW  - evaluation of active labor market policy
KW  - labor supply
KW  - start-up subsidies
KW  - entrepreneurship
KW  - Evaluation aktiver Arbeitsmarktpolitik
KW  - Gründungsförderung
KW  - Arbeitslosigkeit
Y1  - 2015
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-87464
ER  -