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  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Caliendo, Marco
A1  - Fossen, Frank M.
A1  - Kritikos, Alexander
A1  - Wetter, Miriam
T1  - The Gender Gap in Entrepreneurship: Not just a Matter of Personality
JF  - CESifo economic studies : a joint initiative of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität and Ifo Institute for Economic Research
N2  - 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).
KW  - entrepreneurship
KW  - gender gap
KW  - personality
KW  - decomposition analysis
Y1  - 2015
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1093/cesifo/ifu023
SN  - 1610-241X
SN  - 1612-7501
VL  - 61
IS  - 1
SP  - 202
EP  - 238
PB  - Oxford Univ. Press
CY  - Oxford
ER  -