IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/jns/jbstat/v228y2008i1p64-83.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Der Beschäftigungsbeitrag kleiner und mittlerer Unternehmen nach der EU-Definition / The Employment Contribution of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises According to the EU-definition: Erste Ergebnisse auf Basis des IAB-Betriebspanels für Deutschland / First Evidence Based on the IAB-Establishment-Panel for Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Engel Dirk

    (Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung e.V. (RWI Essen), Hohenzollernstr. 1-3, 45128 Essen, Germany)

  • Trax Michaela

    (Ruhr Graduate School in Economics, c/o Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung e.V. (RWI Essen), Hohenzollernstr. 1-3, 45128 Essen, Germany)

Abstract

Statements emphasizing the major contribution of the small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) for net job creation are quite frequent. Concerning the current definition of SMEs provided by the European Commission (EC), this paper makes a first attempt to approximate SMEs’ contribution to net employment change based on the IAB-Establishment Panel Data over the years 1998 to 2005 for the whole private economy. Due to sufficient data, independent one-plant firms with less than 250 employees may approximate the group of SMEs according at best. Comparisons with the firm-level Amadeus database validate the suitability of the IAB-establishment panel data for calculation of the SMEs’ employment share, as long as one controls for the establishments’ independence status. The employment share lies about fifty percent. As a matter of fact, the employment share of affiliated SMEs increases over time. Furthermore, independent small plants do not show higher net employment change rates than neither affiliated plants nor middle-sized and large plants. The results reinforce once again the impression that empirical evidence for the assumed superiority of SMEs, is very weak. Further research should mention the role of ownership and firms venturing on the level of firm as well as for the economy at all in more detail.

Suggested Citation

  • Engel Dirk & Trax Michaela, 2008. "Der Beschäftigungsbeitrag kleiner und mittlerer Unternehmen nach der EU-Definition / The Employment Contribution of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises According to the EU-definition: Erste Ergebnisse ," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 228(1), pages 64-83, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:jns:jbstat:v:228:y:2008:i:1:p:64-83
    DOI: 10.1515/jbnst-2008-0106
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/jbnst-2008-0106
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/jbnst-2008-0106?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Steven J. Davis & John C. Haltiwanger & Scott Schuh, 1998. "Job Creation and Destruction," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262540932, April.
    2. repec:zbw:rwimat:011 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Engel, Dirk & Metzger, Georg & Niefert, Michaela & Skambracks, Daniel, 2004. "Der Beschäftigungsbeitrag kleiner und mittlerer Unternehmen," RWI Materialien 11, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung.
    4. Grotz, Reinhold & Brixy, Udo, 2002. "Entry-rates, the share of surviving businesses and employment growth: differences between West and East Germany since unification," ERSA conference papers ersa02p175, European Regional Science Association.
    5. Davis, Steven J & Haltiwanger, John & Schuh, Scott, 1996. "Small Business and Job Creation: Dissecting the Myth and Reassessing the Facts," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 8(4), pages 297-315, August.
    6. Bauer, Thomas K. & Schmucker, Alexandra & Vorell, Mathias, 2008. "KMU und Arbeitsplatzdynamik : eine Analyse auf Basis der Beschäftigten-Historik-Datei," IAB-Discussion Paper 200802, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    7. Michael Fritsch & Antje Weyh, 2006. "How Large are the Direct Employment Effects of New Businesses? An Empirical Investigation for West Germany," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 27(2), pages 245-260, October.
    8. Davidsson, Per & Lindmark, Leif & Olofsson, Christer, 1998. "The Extent of Overestimation of Small Firm Job Creation--An Empirical Examination of the Regression Bias," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 87-100, August.
    9. Bauer, Thomas K. & Schmucker, Alexandra & Vorell, Matthias, 2008. "KMU und Arbeitsplatzdynamik: Eine Analyse auf Basis der Beschäftigten-Historik (SMEs and employment dynamics: an analysis based on the Employee History)," Zeitschrift für ArbeitsmarktForschung - Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 41(2/3), pages 199-221.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Haunschild, Ljuba & May-Strobl, Eva, 2009. "Arbeitsplatzdynamik und nachhaltige Beschäftigungswirkungen in kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen: Eine empirische Untersuchung auf Basis des Umsatzsteuerpanels für die Jahre 2001 bis 2005," Working Papers 06/09, Institut für Mittelstandsforschung (IfM) Bonn.
    2. Bauer, Thomas K. & Schmucker, Alexandra & Vorell, Mathias, 2008. "KMU und Arbeitsplatzdynamik : eine Analyse auf Basis der Beschäftigten-Historik-Datei," IAB-Discussion Paper 200802, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    3. Michaela Fuchs & Antje Weyh, 2010. "The determinants of job creation and destruction: plant-level evidence for Eastern and Western Germany," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 37(4), pages 425-444, November.
    4. Bjuggren, Carl Magnus & Daunfeldt, Sven-Olov & Johansson, Dan, 2010. "Ownership and High-Growth Firms," Ratio Working Papers 147, The Ratio Institute, revised 29 Sep 2010.
    5. Bauer, Thomas K. & Schmucker, Alexandra & Vorell, Matthias, 2008. "Beschäftigungsbeitrag von kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen: Viel Umschlag, wenig Gewinn," IAB-Kurzbericht 200823, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    6. Böheim, René & Stiglbauer, Alfred & Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf, 2009. "On the persistence of job creation in old and new firms," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 105(1), pages 17-19, October.
    7. Brixy, Udo & Kohaut, Susanne & Schnabel, Claus, 2004. "How fast do newly founded firms mature? Empirical analyses on job quality in start-ups," Discussion Papers 30, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.
    8. Catherine Armington & Alicia Robb & Zoltan J Acs, 1999. "Measures Of Job Flow Dynamics In The U.S.," Working Papers 99-1, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    9. Alex Coad & Werner Hölzl, 2012. "Firm Growth: Empirical Analysis," Chapters, in: Michael Dietrich & Jackie Krafft (ed.), Handbook on the Economics and Theory of the Firm, chapter 24, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Magnus Henrekson & Dan Johansson, 2010. "Gazelles as job creators: a survey and interpretation of the evidence," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 227-244, September.
    11. Marcus Box, 2008. "The death of firms: exploring the effects of environment and birth cohort on firm survival in Sweden," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 31(4), pages 379-393, December.
    12. Zoltan J Acs & Catherine Armington, 1999. "Job Flow Dynamics in the Service Sector," Working Papers 99-14, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    13. Cho, Jang Hee & Chun, Hyun Bae & Lee, Yoonsoo & Yi, In Sill, 2015. "Job Creation, Destruction, and Regional Employment Growth: Evidence from Korean Establishment-level Data," KDI Journal of Economic Policy, Korea Development Institute (KDI), vol. 37(4), pages 55-74.
    14. Baldwin, John R. Jarmin , Ron S. Tang, Jianmin, 2002. "L'importance accrue des producteurs plus petits dans le secteur de la fabrication : comparaison Canada-États-Unis," Série de documents de recherche sur l'analyse économique (AE) 2002003f, Statistics Canada, Direction des études analytiques.
    15. Giovanni Gallipoli & Gianluigi Pelloni, 2013. "Macroeconomic Effects of Job Reallocations: A Survey," Review of Economic Analysis, Digital Initiatives at the University of Waterloo Library, vol. 5(2), pages 127-176, December.
    16. Stefan Bender & Nicholas Bloom & David Card & John Van Reenen & Stefanie Wolter, 2018. "Management Practices, Workforce Selection, and Productivity," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(S1), pages 371-409.
    17. Steven J. Davis & John Haltiwanger, 1998. "Measuring Gross Worker and Job Flows," NBER Chapters, in: Labor Statistics Measurement Issues, pages 77-122, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Michael Fritsch & Maria Kristalova & Michael Wyrwich, 2020. "Regional trajectories of entrepreneurship: the effect of socialism and transition," Jena Economics Research Papers 2020-010, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    19. Akcigit, Ufuk & Chhina, Raman & Cilasun, Seyit Mümin & Miranda, Javier & Serrano-Velarde, Nicolas & Ocakverdi, Eren, 2023. "Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Index: A New Employment Series for the US, Canada, and the UK," CEPR Discussion Papers 18402, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    20. Geurts, Karen & Van Biesebroeck, Johannes, 2016. "Firm creation and post-entry dynamics of de novo entrants," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 59-104.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:jns:jbstat:v:228:y:2008:i:1:p:64-83. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.