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Turning Unemployment into Self-Employment: Effectiveness and Efficiency of Two Start-Up Programmes

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Author Info
Hans J. Baumgartner () (DIW Berlin)
Marco Caliendo () (DIW Berlin and IZA)

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Abstract

Turning unemployment into self-employment has become a major focus of German active labour market policy (ALMP) in recent years. If effective, this would not only reduce Germany’s persistently high unemployment rate, but also increase its notoriously low selfemployment rate. Empirical evidence on the effectiveness of such programmes is scarce. The contribution of the present paper is twofold: first, we evaluate the effectiveness of two start-up programmes for the unemployed. Our outcome variables include the probability of being employed, the probability of being unemployed, and personal income. Second, based on the results of this analysis, we conduct an efficiency analysis, i.e., we estimate whether the Federal Employment Agency has saved money by placing unemployed individuals in these programmes. Our results show that at the end of the observation period, both programmes are effective and one is also efficient. The considerable positive effects present a stark contrast to findings from evaluations of other German ALMP programmes in recent years. Hence, ALMP programmes aimed at moving the unemployed into self-employment may prove to be among the most effective, both in Germany and elsewhere.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 2660.

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Length: 38 pages
Date of creation: Mar 2007
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2660

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Related research
Keywords: start-up subsidies; evaluation; effectiveness; efficiency; self-employment;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
J68 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies - - - Public Policy
C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods
H43 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Project Evaluation; Social Discount Rate
M13 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting - - Business Administration - - - New Firms; Startups

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Jose Galdo & Jeffrey Smith & Dan Black, 2007. "Bandwidth Selection and the Estimation of Treatment Effects with Unbalanced Data," IZA Discussion Papers 3095, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  2. Fredriksson, Peter & Johansson, Per, 2004. "Dynamic Treatment Assignment - The Consequences for Evaluations Using Observational Data," IZA Discussion Papers 1062, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  3. Lechner, Michael & Wunsch, Conny, 2006. "Active labour market policy in East Germany : waiting for the economy to take off," IAB Discussion Paper 200620, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Caliendo, Marco & Hujer, Reinhard & Thomsen, Stephan L., 2005. "The Employment Effects of Job Creation Schemes in Germany: A Microeconometric Evaluation," IZA Discussion Papers 1512, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  5. Marco Caliendo & Sabine Kopeinig, 2005. "Some Practical Guidance for the Implementation of Propensity Score Matching," IZA Discussion Papers 1588, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Richard Blundell & Lorraine Dearden & Barbara Sianesi, 2003. "Evaluating the impact of education on earnings in the UK: Models, methods and results from the NCDS," IFS Working Papers W03/20, Institute for Fiscal Studies. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Lechner, Michael, 1999. "Earnings and Employment Effects of Continuous Off-the-Job Training in East Germany after Unification," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 17(1), pages 74-90, January.
  8. Alberto Abadie & Guido W. Imbens, 2006. "On the Failure of the Bootstrap for Matching Estimators," NBER Technical Working Papers 0325, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  9. A. Smith, Jeffrey & E. Todd, Petra, 2005. "Does matching overcome LaLonde's critique of nonexperimental estimators?," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 125(1-2), pages 305-353. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  10. Begona Cueto & Javier Mato, 2006. "An analysis of self-employment subsidies with duration models," Applied Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 38(1), pages 23-32, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Marco Caliendo & Viktor Steiner, 2005. "Aktive Arbeitsmarktpolitik in Deutschland: Bestandsaufnahme und Bewertung der mikroökonomischen Evaluationsergebnisse," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 515, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
  12. Pfeiffer, Friedhelm & Reize, Frank, 2000. "Business start-ups by the unemployed -- an econometric analysis based on firm data," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(5), pages 629-663, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Black, Dan A. & Smith, J.A.Jeffrey A., 2004. "How robust is the evidence on the effects of college quality? Evidence from matching," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 121(1-2), pages 99-124. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  14. Edwin Leuven & Barbara Sianesi, 2003. "PSMATCH2: Stata module to perform full Mahalanobis and propensity score matching, common support graphing, and covariate imbalance testing," Statistical Software Components S432001, Boston College Department of Economics, revised 02 May 2009. [Downloadable!]
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Jörn Block & Philipp Sandner, 2009. "Necessity and Opportunity Entrepreneurs and Their Duration in Self-employment: Evidence from German Micro Data," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 117-137, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Daniela Glocker & Viktor Steiner, 2007. "Self-Employment - a Way to End Unemployment?: Empirical Evidence from German Pseudo-Panel Data," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 661, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Wolff, Joachim & Nivorozhkin, Anton, 2008. "Start me up: The effectiveness of a self-employment programme for needy unemployed people in Germany," IAB Discussion Paper 200820, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]. [Downloadable!]
  4. Bernhard, Sarah & Hohmeyer, Katrin & Jozwiak, Eva & Koch, Susanne & Kruppe, Thomas & Stephan, Gesine & Wolff, Joachim, 2008. "Aktive Arbeitsmarktpolitik in Deutschland und ihre Wirkungen," IAB-Forschungsbericht 200802, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]. [Downloadable!]
  5. Núria Rodríguez-Planas, 2007. "What Works Best For Getting the Unemployed Back to Work: Employment Services or Small-Business Assistance Programs? Evidence from Romania," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 712.07, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Marco Caliendo & Alexander S. Kritikos, 2008. "Start-Ups by the Unemployed: Characteristics, Survival and Direct Employment Effects," Working Papers 008, Hanseatic University, Germany, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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