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Betriebliche Arbeitnehmermitbestimmung stellt Gegenstand zahlreicher Studien dar. Unternehmerische Mitbestimmung konnte sich dagegen als Themenschwerpunkt in der ökonomischen Diskussion bisher nicht ausreichend durchsetzen, weshalb umfangreicher Forschungsbedarf angemerkt wird. Mit der vorliegenden Dissertation wird dieser Aufforderung in fünf Papieren nachgekommen. Dabei wird sich ausschließlich auf die Drittelmitbestimmung in GmbHs des westdeutschen Dienstleistungssektors konzentriert. In dem Papier „Die Aufsichtsratslücke im Dienstleistungssektor. Ausmaß und Bestimmungsgründe“ wird eine Analyse der Verbreitung der Drittelmitbestimmung im westdeutschen Dienstleistungssektor durchgeführt. Während im Industriebereich die Gewährung von Mitbestimmungsrechten äußerst verbreitet war, stellt sich die Frage, ob diese Tatsache auch für den Dienstleistungssektor zutrifft. Letzterer zeichnet sich in Deutschland, im Gegensatz zum verarbeitenden Gewerbe, durch kontinuierliches Wachstum aus. Die Arbeit demonstriert, dass - entgegen den rechtskräftigen Regelungen- weniger als die Hälfte aller GmbHs im westdeutschen Dienstleistungssektor mit 500 bis 2000 Beschäftigten einen Aufsichtsrat und folglich Mitbestimmung auf Unternehmensebene aufweisen. Zur Erklärung der ermittelten Aufsichtsratslücke wird in dem Papier eine ökonometrische Analyse potenzieller Bestimmungsgründe für das verbreitete Fehlen durchgeführt. Diese demonstriert, dass sich sowohl die Organisationsform des Hauptgesellschafters als auch die Beschäftigtenzahl auf die Wahrscheinlichkeit des Bestehens eines Aufsichtsrates auswirken. Das Unternehmensalter spielt als Einflussgröße hingegen keine wichtige Rolle. Das Papier wurde in der Zeitschrift für Industrielle Beziehungen Ausgabe 04/2009 veröffentlicht. Auf eine Replik, die mit dem Artikel veröffentlicht worden ist, wurde in der ersten Ausgabe der Zeitschrift Industrielle Beziehungen 2010 entsprechend mit einer Replik geantwortet (siehe Kapitel 3). Um die resultierenden Ergebnisse besser einordnen zu können, wurden für das zweite Papier „Recht und Realität von Mitbestimmung im westdeutschen Dienstleistungssektor: 11 Fallstudien“ Interviews durchgeführt. Ziel war es insbesondere, die im ersten Papier herausgearbeiteten Bestimmungsgründe für das verbreitete Nicht-Vorhandensein von Aufsichtsräten zu überprüfen. In 11 Befragungen in verschiedenen Regionen Deutschlands erklären Vertreter der Arbeitgeber- und Arbeitnehmerseite, weshalb in ihrem Unternehmen kein Aufsichtsrat existiert. Außerdem wird die Stellung des Betriebsrates sowie die Bedeutung von Mitbestimmung im Allgemeinen erläutert. Die Fallstudien demonstrieren, dass Arbeitgeber und Belegschaft die Bildung von Betriebsräten in der Regel begrüßen. Ein Aufsichtsrat wird hingegen als überflüssig erachtet. Insgesamt zeigt die Analyse, dass Arbeitnehmermitbestimmung auf Abteilungsebene mehr Bedeutung beigemessen wird als in den gesetzlich vorgeschriebenen Institutionen. In dem Papier „The Economic Consequences of one-third Co-determination in German Supervisory Boards: First Evidence for the Service Sector from a New Source of Enterprise Data“ werden mögliche ökonomische Auswirkungen des Drittelbeteiligungsgesetzes analysiert. Unternehmen mit und ohne Aufsichtsräte werden im Hinblick auf ihren Erfolg (Profitabilität und Value added per employee) verglichen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Unternehmen mit Aufsichtsrat im Schnitt eine höhere Produktivität aufweisen. Mögliche Einflüsse auf die Rentabilität einer Unternehmung erweisen sich als nicht signifikant. Schließlich geht es in dem fünften Papier „One-third Co-determination in German Supervisory Boards and its Economic Consequences. New Evidence for Employment“ um potenzielle Auswirkungen unternehmerischer Mitbestimmung auf die Beschäftigungsentwicklung. Der Aufsatz ist erst der zweite in der Mitbestimmungsforschung, der sich dieser Thematik widmet. In einem Regressionsmodell wird ermittelt, dass die Existenz eines Aufsichtsrates nicht signifikant mit dem Beschäftigungsniveau korreliert. Die Besonderheit des Forschungsdesigns besteht zunächst darin, dass erstmals Unternehmen gleicher Größenordnung und gleicher Branche, die sich insbesondere durch die Existenz eines Aufsichtsrates unterscheiden, in Hinblick auf ihre wirtschaftliche Performanz verglichen werden können. Zusätzlich stellt die Verwendung eines kombinierten Datensatzes ein Charakteristikum der vorliegenden Arbeit dar. Im Rahmen des Dissertationsvorhabens werden Mikrodaten aus Erhebungen der amtlichen Statistik mit Daten aus externen Quellen verknüpft. Grund dafür ist, dass die Erhebungen der amtlichen Statistik keine Informationen über das Vorhandensein eines Aufsichtsrates enthalten. Diese Informationen sowie die Angaben über die Eigentümerstruktur wurden aus einer kommerziellen Datenbank der Firma Hoppenstedt entnommen und im Falle unvollständiger Angaben durch eigene Recherchen ergänzt. Die Verknüpfung findet über einen sowohl in den Mikrodaten der amtlichen Statistik als auch in dem selbständig aufgebauten Datensatz enthaltenen Schlüssel statt, den Angaben zu Registergericht und Handelsregister-Nummer.
All of the papers contained in this thesis deal with some aspect of labor market inequality. The impact of September 11th, 2001 on the employment prospects of Arabs and Muslims in the German labor market (chapter 2) examines whether the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11th, 2001 have influenced the job prospects of persons from predominantly Muslim countries in the German labor market. Using a large, representative database of the German working population, evidence from regression-adjusted difference-in-differences-estimates indicates that 9/11 did not cause a severe decline in job prospects. This result, which is in line with prior evidence from Sweden and England, is robust over a wide range of control groups. Islamistic terror and the job prospects of Arab men in Britain: Does a country's direct involvement matter? (chapter 3) examines whether the labor market prospects of Arab men in England are influenced by recent Islamistic terrorist attacks. We use data from the British Labour Force Survey from Spring 1999 to Winter 2006 and treat the terrorist attacks on the USA on September 11th, 2001, the Madrid train bombings on March 11th, 2004 and the London bombings on July 7th, 2005 as quasi-experimental events that may have changed the attitudes towards Arab or Muslim men. Using treatment group definitions based on ethnicity, country of birth and religion, evidence from difference-in-differences-estimators combined with matching indicates that the real wages, hours worked and employment probabilities of Arab men were unchanged by the attacks. This finding is in line with prior evidence from Europe. Effects of the obligation to employ severely disabled workers - findings from the introduction of the Law to Combat Unemployment among Severely Disabled People'' (chapter 4) uses new administrative data from the German Federal Employment Agency -- the Integrated Employment Biographies Sample IEBS -- to assess the impact of a mandatory employment quota for disabled workers in Germany. We use an exogenous change, introduced through the Law to Combat Unemployment among Severely Disabled People'' (Gesetz zur Bekämpfung der Arbeitslosigkeit Schwerbehinderter''), as a natural experiment and measure the change in the reemployment probability of the unemployed disabled by means of regression-adjusted difference-in-differences estimators. Our results indicate that the change in the employment quota neither enhanced nor worsened the employment prospects of the disabled. Finally, Intra-firm wage inequality and firm performance -- First evidence from German linked employer-employee-data (chapter 6) deals with the impact of wage inequality on firm performance. Economic theory suggests both positive and negative relationships between intra-firm wage inequality and productivity. This paper contributes to the growing empirical literature on this subject. We combine German employer-employee-data for the years 1995-2005 with inequality measures using the whole wage distribution of a firm and rely on panel-instrumental variable estimators to control for unobserved heterogeneity and simultaneity problems. Our results indicate a relatively small impact of wage inequality on firm performance in West Germany, while there seems to be a relationship for some inequality measures in East Germany. Further analysis shows that the relationship varies strongly with industrial relations in East Germany.
Der Arbeitsmarkt für Ältere rückt mit seiner Bedeutung für die Bewältigung der Probleme des demografischen Wandels in den Mittelpunkt des öffentlichen Interesses. Wie gelingt es, Ältere länger als bisher in Beschäftigung zu halten? Wie können ihre Wiedereinstellungschancen erhöht werden? Trotz der verbesserten Arbeitsmarktintegration Älterer der vergangenen Jahre ist die Langzeitarbeitslosigkeit unter ihnen in Deutschland immer noch hoch und deutet darauf hin, dass weiterhin Defizite bestehen. Anders als viele andere untersuchen die hier vorgestellten Arbeiten daher auch die Nachfrageseite des Arbeitsmarktes. Ihnen ist gemein, dass sie sich auf eine Kombination von Individual- und Betriebsinformationen stützen, die mit mikroökonometrischen Methoden ausgewertet werden. Hierdurch ließen sich betriebliches Verhalten wie auch individuelle (Erwerbs-) Lebensverläufe in ihrem Zusammenspiel untersuchen. Kapitel A untersucht, wie Betriebe das Erwerbsaustrittsverhalten ihrer älteren Arbeitnehmer beeinflussen. In Hazardratenmodellen kommt ein spezieller LIAB-Datensatz der Jahre 1996 bis 2004 zum Einsatz, um Bestimmungsgründe für das Ende des individuellen Arbeitslebens zu ermitteln. Dabei kommt zum Vorschein, dass Institutionen wie der Kündigungsschutz, Mitbestimmung und Tarifbindung keine beschäftigungsverlängernde Wirkung entfalten. Es zeigt sich dagegen, dass sie die Position Älterer im Betrieb untergraben und einen frühen Austritt begünstigen. Die Annahme, dass die betriebliche Entscheidung über die Weiterbeschäftigung Älterer in starkem Ausmaß als Anpassungsinstrument des Personalbedarfs bei Nachfrageschwankungen dient, konnte allgemein bestätigt werden. Die Abhängigkeit der Austrittswahrscheinlichkeit von den Umsatzerwartungen des beschäftigenden Betriebes spricht hier eine deutliche Sprache. Andererseits ließen sich auch Anzeichen für Bedingungen finden, unter denen die Generation der Über-50-Jährigen dem Betrieb, dem Arbeitsmarkt und schließlich den Sozialversicherten als Beitragszahler erhalten bleiben kann. Es zeigt sich, dass ein hoher Anteil Jüngerer im Betrieb die Austrittswahrscheinlichkeit Älterer senkt. Der Furcht vor dem technischen Wandel im Zusammenhang mit dem Ziel einer Erhöhung der Erwerbsbeteiligung Älterer konnte hier keine Nahrung gegeben werden. Die Ergebnisse deuten im Gegenteil darauf hin, dass eine moderne technische Ausstattung des Betriebes sich positiv auf die Erwerbsaussichten auch der Älteren auswirkt. Genauso wenig ließen sich nachteilige, kurzfristige Effekte der Einführung neuer Technik nachweisen. Mit den Ergebnissen bestätigt sich die Erwartung, dass beim Übergang aus dem Erwerbs- in die Ruhephase der beschäftigende Betrieb und damit die Nachfrageseite des Arbeitsmarktes eine wichtige Rolle spielen. Eine spezielle Auseinandersetzung widmet Kapitel B dem Kündigungsschutz und seinem Schwellenwert. Es gibt gute Gründe für die These, dass insbesondere Ältere ihre Wiederbeschäftigungschancen durch das geltende Kündigungsschutzrecht und seinen Schwellenwert berechtigt geschmälert sehen. Insbesondere die Sozialauswahl mit ihrer vermeintlichen Schutzfunktion für die ältere Belegschaft stehe einer Neueinstellung Älterer im Wege, so die landläufige Meinung. Diese Vermutung lässt sich durch die Untersuchung der LIAB-Daten nicht bestätigen. Angesichts der verwendeten RDD-Methode, die Gesetzesänderungen als quasinatürliche Experimente nutzt, erweist sich der empirische Ansatz als unabhängig von Fragen der notwendigen Kontrolle von Einflussmerkmalen und der geeigneten parametrischen Form. Genauso wenig ließ sich die Hoffnung bestätigen, dass sich Betriebe durch Weiterbildung allein zu einem verstärkten Einsatz Älterer bewegen lassen. Die in Kapitel C geschätzten Effekte von Weiterbildung auf den Anteil Älterer waren bestenfalls insignifikant. Wieder gingen kombinierte Angaben aus IAB-Betriebspanel und der Beschäftigtenstatistik in die Auswertungen ein. Der möglichen Endogenität der betrieblichen Weiterbildungsentscheidung wurde mittels eines Matching-Verfahrens Rechnung getragen. Der vermutete kausale Effekt betrieblicher Weiterbildung hin zu einem höheren Anteil Älterer konnte in einem Vergleich der Btriebspaare nicht nachgewiesen werden. Hier könnte eine altersselektive Auswahl jüngerer Teilnehmer zu einem Hinausdrängen derjenigen geführt haben, die eben nicht von der Weiterbildungsaktivität ihres Arbeitgebers profitieren.
The postal sector has a long monopolistic tradition in many countries; however, since the 1990s it has undergone considerable changes. At the beginning of that decade, the European Commission abolished exclusive rights within the postal system and opened up the market to new private postal providers and changes have continued to accelerate after two important European directives. Both directives were intended to improve the quality of service in the industry and to open up the market to competition. What has changed since the opening of the German postal market? A look at market shares measured by volumes of processed postal items, or by revenue, quickly reveals the prevailing dominance of the former monopolist Deutsche Post AG (DPAG). Despite an increasing number of market entries by private postal providers, it seems the German postal market is still characterized by the old monopolistic structures and that the aim of creating a competitive environment has not been fully achieved. This thesis deals with different competition issues from an economics perspective. The analyses are based on self-collected data and in-depth interviews conducted during on-site visits and thus provide first empirical evidence regarding the status quo in the German postal market.
This dissertation concerns the question of how economics can contribute to the analysis of trade-offs between values (or normative objectives). The analysis is illustrated for the case of policies that pursue the goal of sustainability. Methodologically, this is done by reflecting economic concepts in light of philosophical theories and using generic models to analyze trade-offs between particular values. In sum, the work shows how economics can help in analyzing the factual relationships between values by clarifying the set of feasible acts and outcomes. The first paper of this cumulative dissertation concerns the question what a general definition of efficiency with respect to normative objective implies about relationships between two values. In order to conceptualize relationships between values carefully, the analysis distinguishes instrumental from intrinsic values and discusses the question whether there is one intrinsic value (value monism) or many intrinsic values (value pluralism). Next, a small economic model is used to show that there can be different relationships between values such as win-win relationships and trade-offs in value-efficient states if there are three or more values. Further, the distinction between Pareto-efficiency (based on individual preferences) and value-efficiency (which can also include non-preference values) is used to study relationships between values. The second paper uses the definition of sustainability as inter- and intragenerational justice to discuss the relationship between these two objectives. The general aim of this paper is to discuss what economic concepts can contribute to the discussion of tradeoffs between justices. For this, a syntax of the concept of justice is employed, different relationships between justices are defined and economic concepts such as scarcity, efficiency and opportunity costs are transferred to the justice context. One result from this analysis is that there must be a trade-off between these two justices in such respective efficient outcomes. The third paper concerns an intertemporal mechanism leading to the well-known equity-efficiency trade-off in an intergenerational setting. For this, two central characteristics of intergenerational policy making are taken into account: irreversibility and ignorance (or unawareness). A pertinent example is the irreversible use of fossil fuels before and after the discovery of the effect of CO2 emissions on climate change. The trade-off between Pareto-efficiency and intergenerational equity that results from these two characteristics is shown in a model with two non-overlapping generations which use a non-renewable resource. In the model there is initial unawareness about an intergenerational externality from resource use that is only discovered after the irreversible use of the resource. A central result of the paper is the trade-off between intergenerational equity and efficiency that emerges if initially unknown sustainability problems arise after irreversible policies have been enacted. The fourth paper concerns the question what the concept of merit goods can contribute to discussions of sustainability. For this, the history of the concept is discussed, then merit goods are defined and connected to the philosophical literature on different conceptions of well-being. In the next step different challenges and opportunities of merit good arguments are discussed for the sustainability context. For example, it becomes clear that merit good arguments concern conceptions of well-being and do not directly concern the aspect of intergenerational distribution in sustainability problems.
All of the papers contained in this thesis address the topic of population economics, especially in relation to labor markets. The first chapter, Introduction, gives an overview of the papers discussed in this thesis. In the second chapter, Age and Gender Differences in Job Opportunities, job opportunities for older workers are analyzed. Newly-employed women and men who are older than the age of 55 are more limited in their occupational choices than younger women and men. Different measures of segregation such as the Duncan Index and Hutchens Index show unequal distribution of jobs over age. Older women in particular face the highest segregation. Several years of the IAB Employment Sample are used in the analysis. In the third chapter, Explaining Age and Gender Differences in Employment Rates: A Labor Supply Side Perspective, the labor supply of older individuals is analyzed. The comparison of reservation wages and entry wages shows age- and gender-specific differences. Nonemployed individuals at the age of 55 and older have the highest reservation wages. Reservation wages for females are always higher than those for males. Entry wages increase with age for males, but not for females. Furthermore, the job satisfaction of women decreases with age while satisfaction with leisure tends to increase. This may explain why employment rates for females are lower than for males. The German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) data is used in the paper. In the forth chapter, Somewhere over the Rainbow: Sexual Orientation Discrimination in Germany, sexual orientation-based differences in income are analyzed. Although Germany has an anti-discrimination law that has explicitly prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation since 2006, there are significant income differences for gay men and lesbian women. While gay men have an income discount of 5 to 6 percent relative to married heterosexual men, lesbian women have an income premium of 9 to 10 percent relative to heterosexual married women. These differences within the gender types can be explained partially by selection into specific occupations and sectors. One wave of the German Mikrozensus data is used in the analysis. The fifth chapter, A Note on Happiness in Eastern Europe, is no more related to Germany, but takes an international position. Estimations on life satisfaction show typical results, such as a u-shaped effect in relation to age. Marriage and a good state of health have positive effects on life satisfaction or utility, while individual unemployment has a negative effect. Several years of the European Values Study (EVS) and the World Value Survey (WSV) are used in the paper. The thesis is finished by a final chapter, Conclusion
Against the background of recent economic attempts to explain individual economic decisions by structural and institutional factors, this thesis examined to what extent cultural norms exhibit quantitatively important explanatory power for individual economic outcomes, namely individual’s savings and working choices. While an extensive literature deals with the relation between culture and aggregate economic outcomes, those results obtained may reveal distorted cultural effects due to unobserved omitted variables at the country level. Thus, for the purpose of this thesis, four empirical studies were conducted based on individual and household level data for the USA and Germany, respectively. Due to difficulties in defining a coherent concept of culture, Chapters 2 to 4 use individual religiosity, as measured by one’s religious affiliation and religious involvement, as a proxy for culture. Using individual survey data for the USA, namely the PSID, for the years 2003 to 2009, the aim of Chapter 2 was, firstly, to analyze the extent to which religious beliefs and religious commitment are associated with distinct individual savings behavior as a basis for culture-induced heterogeneity in aggregate economic outcomes. One’s religiosity was found in the cross-sectional analysis to be a robust determinant of individual savings choices, even once I control for differences in individual characteristics. To identify the causal effect of religion on individual savings choices, secondly, the results from the multivariate analysis were verified by using the longitudinal structure of the PSID and by an instrumental variable approach, where own individual religious belief were instrumented with the share of one’s religious tradition in the region of ancestry. Neither of these approaches was able to replicate the positive relation between religious affiliation and savings behavior found in the cross-sectional analysis Although the estimates are subject to inefficiencies due to data limitations, this paper mainly sheds light on the endogeneity bias inherent in the relation between cultural factors and economic outcomes. However, taking actively part in religious activities was found to affect the amount saved positively. Thus, one may argue that religious traditions impose religious rules and establish social networks that enhance an individual’s ability and willingness to save money. As opposed to the vital religious market in the USA, Chapters 3 and 4 analyzed the relationship between individual religiosity and risk-taking preferences as well as individual financial behavior within Germany. Using German micro-data, namely the GSOEP, for the years 2003 and 2004, while controlling for the overall level of general risk assessment, evidence is provided that different religious affiliations are associated with distinct financial risk taking attitudes as well as with distinct individual propensities to trust strangers, another central determinant of a household’s financial choices. Further, the extent to which religion-induced heterogeneity in risk-taking preferences actually influences investment and trusting decisions of households in Germany was examined. As compared to the results obtained for the relation between religiosity and savings behavior in the USA, the main differences in economic attitudes and behavior in Germany occur between Christian and Non-Christian religions. However, religious networks were found in both countries to be more important for economic outcomes than religious belief. Chapter 5 purposed to replicate epidemiological studies conducted for North America (Fernández, 2007; Fernández and Fogli, 2009; Gevrek et al., 2011) in Germany using a quite smaller sample which were drawn from data provided by the GSOEP for the years 2001 to 2011. Applying probit and Tobit estimation techniques the results contradict the findings obtained by these previous contributions. While cultural norms towards labor market behavior of women, as measured by past female LFP rates in the country of own or parental origin, were found to be negatively associated with labor market outcomes for first-generation immigrant women in Germany, no statistically significant relation was revealed for the second generation. However, in accordance with the findings from Chapters 2 to 4, religiosity, and especially the Islamic belief, was showed to be negatively related to labor market outcomes of both generations.
Against the background of the dependence of cultural institutions on public funding and the increasing pressure on public budgets, this thesis aims to make a contribution to the economic analysis of the German cultural sector. For this purpose, three empirical studies focusing on the German cultural sector are conducted, using different methods to quantify the analyzed effects. Chapter 2 describes an application of the contingent valuation method (CVM) for assessing public approval of the amount of subsidies spent on cultural facilities. For our analysis, we conducted a contingent valuation study to capture the willingness to pay (WTP) for the municipal cultural supply in Lüneburg, Germany. To identify the factors associated with the respondents’ WTP, we supplemented an ordinary least squares (OLS) and a Tobit regression model with a quantile regression (QR) model. The findings suggest the existence of non-use values. Since the QR analyzes the coefficients at different points of the distribution of the dependent variable, it accounts for the heterogeneity of preferences. Overall, the results indicate that the QR can provide useful information in deriving implications for cultural policy. In contrast to the consumption-oriented approach of chapter 2, chapters 3 and 4 focus on the production of performing arts in public theaters. Data were taken from the theater reports published by the German Stage Association (Deutscher Bühnenverein) from 1993 to 2007. Chapter 3 uses a stochastic frontier analysis approach to analyze the efficiency of German public theaters. Whether the assumption of cost-minimizing behavior is reliable in the case of public theaters is of particular interest. Thus, in addition to the input distance function model, we employ a cost function model in order to evaluate whether the cost-minimizing behavior can be maintained. We also applied several panel data models that differ in their ability to account for unobserved heterogeneity to evaluate the impact of unobserved heterogeneity on the efficiency estimates. The results indicate that the cost-minimizing assumption cannot be maintained. We also find a considerable unobserved heterogeneity across the theaters that causes a significant variation in the models’ efficiency estimates. Taken together, our results suggest that there is still space for improvement in the employment of resources in the area of performing arts production in Germany. The third study, presented in Chapter 4, discusses the development and sources of productivity in German public theaters. As labor costs increase, productivity decreases over time; this phenomenon is referred to as ”Baumol’s cost-disease”. However, productivity is not influenced only by technological change; technical efficiency and scale efficiency also play a role. Thus, which of the three factors are positive or negative drivers for productivity change in the case of German public theaters is of particular interest. Using a stochastic distance frontier approach to decompose the total factor productivity into the three different sources of productivity the findings indicate that there is no significant technological progress that can countervail the negative productivity trend caused by increasing wages and, thus, support the cost-disease hypothesis. Furthermore, increasing returns to scale for the majority of theatres were found. Chapter 5 summarizes the main results of the three empirical analyses. This is followed by concluding remarks on the need for further research.
This dissertation is based on three empirical studies on the thematic complex of the comparative advantages of self-employment and business start-ups out of unemployment. The first study examines the characteristics of persons who present a broad range of experience in terms of professional competencies. The extent to which self-reported entrepreneurial competence and the assessment of professionally self-employed activities correlate with the number of professional competencies acquired is examined in particular. It emerged from previous studies that the tendency to establish new businesses increases with the variety of experience. More recent studies show, however, that different causes may lie behind this correlation. The results of this study show that both entrepreneurial competence and the estimation of self-employment increase with the number of professional competencies. However, the analyses would indicate that entrepreneurial competence (self-assessment) is more strongly correlated and that an actual increase in qualifications lies behind the self-assessed entrepreneurial competence. Moreover, it emerges that self-assessed entrepreneurial competence increases at decreasing marginal rates with the number of professional competencies. The second study examines the extent to which professional background and, in particular, the professional and employment experience of an individual influence the duration he or she remains in self-employment. This is studied on the basis of data from a survey of founders who become self-employed out of unemployment. The study is based on the idea that individual characteristics can be used productively in different forms of employment and that specific competence and comparative characteristics affect the time-dependent exit from self-employment. The results initially confirm previous findings, in particular that firm characteristics do not play a very significant role in the decision to start up a business from a position of unemployment. Broad-based qualifications plus business skills, a high level of intrinsic motivation for self-employment and exploitable professional experience display a strong positive correlation with the duration in self-employment; this would suggest corresponding comparative advantages for self-employment. However, business skills alone reduce the time-dependent probability of survival in self-employment and accelerate exits into employment. The third study analyzes features of local labor markets in terms of their influence on the duration of self-employment. The basis of the study is provided by process-produced data generated by the German Federal Employment Agency on the employment biographies of individuals who received support in establishing businesses with a view to exiting unemployment. Individual characteristics were examined in addition to regional determinants. The idea behind the study is that local labor market conditions can have different comparative effects on income possibilities in both positions of employment and self-employment. The exit from self-employment is described as a change in work activity which arises following the evaluation of different income options. The results show that local labor market conditions have a considerable influence on the duration of self-employment and that the effect of local labor market conditions is very complex. The results would prompt the expectation that a one-dimensional perspective based on the local unemployment rate does not provide an adequate measure of general economic conditions. Increasing regional unemployment reduces the duration of self-employment while increasing uncertainty on the local labor market results in its extension. Moreover, all local characteristics display reducing to reversing marginal effects. Tests of individual characteristics show that persons from small businesses, master craftsmen and foremen, and persons with high income premiums remain longer in their last employment situation than the controls. These characteristics are clearly associated with comparative advantages for self-employment. The study also corroborates the impression that people with business backgrounds quickly leave self-employment for employed positions.