nep-ent New Economics Papers
on Entrepreneurship
Issue of 2012‒02‒01
ten papers chosen by
Marcus Dejardin
Notre-Dame de la Paix University

  1. Who Starts a Business and who is Self-Employed in Germany By Michael Fritsch; Alexander Kritikos; Alina Rusakova
  2. Who helps whom? Risk taking and solidarity in a virtual world experiment By Lübbe, Ingmar; Bolle, Friedel
  3. The Great Recession and bank lending to small businesses By Judit Montoriol-Garriga; J. Christina Wang
  4. The Smallest Firm Effect: an International Study By De Moor, Lieven; Sercu, Piet
  5. The smallest stocks are not just smaller: US and international evidence By De Moor, Lieven; Sercu, Piet
  6. Ethnic Concentration, Cultural Identity and Immigrant Self-Employment in Switzerland By G. Guerra; R. Patuelli; R. Maggi
  7. A Historical Review of the Beer Economy By Poelmans, Eline; Swinnen, Johan
  8. LES RISQUES DU PROCESSUS REPRENEURIAL EN PME By B. Deschamps; S. Geindre
  9. A propos de la capacité à survivre des coopératives : une étude de la relation entre âge et mortalité des organisations coopératives agricoles françaises By Rousselière, D.; Joly, I.
  10. Die Ergänzung der Gründungsstatistik des IfM Bonn durch freiberufliche Gründungen: Ergebnisse einer Pilotstudie am Beispiel Nordrhein-Westfalen By Kranzusch, Peter; Suprinovic, Olga

  1. By: Michael Fritsch (School of Economics and Business Administration, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena); Alexander Kritikos (German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), University of Potsdam, IZA Bonn, and o IAB, Nuremberg); Alina Rusakova (School of Economics and Business Administration, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena)
    Abstract: Based on representative data, the German Micro-Census, we provide an overview of the development of self-employment and entrepreneurship in Germany between 1991 and 2011, the first two decades after reunification. We investigate the socio-economic background of these individuals, their education, previous employment status, and their income level. We observe a unique increase in self-employment in Germany by 40 percent which can partly be attributed to the transformation process of East Germany and to the shift to the service sector. We notice a yearly start-up rate of 1 percent among the working population (almost 20 percent of them being re-starters), a decision that pays for the majority of individuals in terms of income. Contrary to other countries, in Germany there is a positive relationship between educational levels and the probability of starting a business.
    Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Self-Employment, Start-ups, Germany
    JEL: L26 D22
    Date: 2012–01–23
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2012-001&r=ent
  2. By: Lübbe, Ingmar; Bolle, Friedel
    Abstract: Most incomes underlie some risk, i.e. ex ante they can be regarded as a lottery ticket. In every society, the lucky winners of this lottery compensate unlucky losers (unemployed workers or bankrupt entrepreneurs) privately and/or by public insurances. Do voluntary solidarity payments depend on the amount and origin of risk of winners and losers? We differentiate between people with riskless incomes (civil servants), with low risk incomes (workers), and with high risk incomes (entrepreneurs). Some of our subjects had no choice of their risk class (civil servants and some workers), some of them had the choice to be a worker or an entrepreneur. The main stylized results are: (i) Civil servants and lucky workers with and without a choice transfer similar shares of their income to unlucky workers, but (ii) discriminate against unlucky entrepreneurs. (iii) Lucky entrepreneurs give about the same share of their income to unlucky workers as lucky workers do and (iv) do not significantly discriminate. (v) The potential solidarity payments are not an incentive for taking higher risks. --
    Keywords: solidarity,responsibility,risk taking
    JEL: D63 D64
    Date: 2011
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:euvwdp:310&r=ent
  3. By: Judit Montoriol-Garriga; J. Christina Wang
    Abstract: This paper investigates whether small firms have experienced worse tightening of credit conditions during the Great Recession than large firms. To structure the empirical analysis, the paper first develops a simple model of bank loan pricing that derives both the interest rates on loans actually made and the marginal condition for loans that would be rationed in the event of an economic downturn. Empirical estimations using loan-level data find evidence that, once we account for the contractual features of business loans made under formal commitments to lend, interest rate spreads on small loans have declined on average relative to spreads on large loans during the Great Recession. Quantile regressions further reveal that the relative decline in average spread is entirely accounted for by loans to the riskier borrowers. These findings are consistent with the pattern of differentially more rationing of credit to small borrowers in recessions as predicted by the model. This suggests that policy measures that counter this effect by encouraging lending to small businesses may be effective in stimulating their recovery and, in turn, job growth.
    Keywords: Recessions ; Small business - Finance ; Bank loans
    Date: 2011
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedbwp:11-16&r=ent
  4. By: De Moor, Lieven (Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel (HUB), Belgium); Sercu, Piet (K.U. Leuven, Faculty of Business and Economics, Research Center of International Finance and Louvain School of Management, Department of Finance)
    Abstract: Using a carefully screened and ltered international data base with a wide coverage across countries and size classes, this paper identies and documents a post-1980s size effect which is persistent, not picked up by a Fama-French-style SMB, and largely due to the smallest-decile stocks. We test for potential explanations (such as market risk, infrequent trading, nancial distress risk, missing book-values, momentum, liquidity risk, changing business conditions, January effect, exchange risk, time-varying risk loadings and dividend yield effects), but none can quite explain the international size effect, whether separately or jointly. Fully identifying the missing risk factor is beyond the scope of this paper but we do nd that dividend yield shows up as a signicant characteristic in the cross-section of risk-adjusted returns, even after controlling for time-varying risk loadings linearly related to dividend yield. When we construct two ad-hoc risk factors that jointly capture the documented size effect, and then correlate these factors with characteristics-based portfolios, we likewise find that especially dividend yield seems to play an important role in the missing risk factor. More generally, this paper revives the debate on the small-rm effect and, we hope, will stimulate further research on a class of stocks that are too interesting to ignore.
    Keywords: forex; exposure; anomaly; Fama; French; dividend yield; liquidity; missing factor; size effect; small firm
    JEL: F59 L16 L22 N44
    Date: 2011–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hub:wpecon:201118&r=ent
  5. By: De Moor, Lieven (Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel (HUB), Belgium); Sercu, Piet (K.U. Leuven, Faculty of Business and Economics, Research Center of International Finance and Louvain School of Management, Department of Finance)
    Abstract: Using an international Thomson Reuters Datastream database where size coverage is unusually wide and data errors have been reduced to a low level, we show that some specification decisions, and especially those related to size, may have a significant impact on asset pricing test results. We also show that, in data with wider coverage with respect to size, the Fama-French factor portfolios need to be adjusted and their number increased. Specifically, (i) standard asset pricing models leave pricing errors for the ten percent smallest stocks, and (ii) two additional risk factors (i.e. one micro-stock factor and one extreme book-to- market factor) are needed to capture this mispricing. This holds both in US and international data. Further research is needed to measure the separate relevance of the possible economic interpretations and to identify more economic explanations for the additional risks associated with the smallest stocks.
    Keywords: small firm; CAPM; SMB; HML; WML; momentum; distress; Fama; French; pricing error
    JEL: G12 G15
    Date: 2011–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hub:wpecon:201128&r=ent
  6. By: G. Guerra; R. Patuelli; R. Maggi
    Abstract: Immigrant self-employment rates vary considerably across regions in Switzerland. Business ownership provides an alternative to wage labour, where immigrants have to face structural barriers such as the limited knowledge of the local language, or difficulties in fruitfully making use of their own human capital. Despite their historically high unemployment rates with respect to natives, immigrants in Switzerland are less entrepreneurial. It is therefore important to uncover factors that may facilitate the transition from the status of immigrant to the one of economic agent. Among others factors, concentration in ethnic enclaves, as well as accumulated labour market experience and time elapsed since immigration, have been associated to higher business ownership rates. In this paper, we use a cross-section of 2,490 Swiss municipalities in order to investigate the role played by the ethnic concentration of immigrants, as well as cultural factors, in determining self-employment rates.
    JEL: C21 J24 J61 O15 R23
    Date: 2012–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bol:bodewp:wp808&r=ent
  7. By: Poelmans, Eline (Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel (HUB), Belgium); Swinnen, Johan (LICOS Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium)
    Abstract: This article reviews beer production, consumption and the industrial organization of breweries throughout history. Monasteries were the centers of the beer economy in the early Middle Ages. Innovation and increased demand later induced the growth of commercial breweries. Globalization and scientific discoveries transformed the beer industry and increased competition from the 16th through the 19th century. The 20th century was characterized by dramatic (domestic and international) consolidation, major shifts in consumption patterns, and the re-emergence of small breweries.
    Keywords: economic history; history of beer; monasteries; innovation and taxation in brewing; modern brewing; consolidation and globalization
    JEL: N30 N40 L23 L66
    Date: 2011–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hub:wpecon:201116&r=ent
  8. By: B. Deschamps (CERAG - Centre d'études et de recherches appliquées à la gestion - CNRS : UMR5820 - Université Pierre Mendès-France - Grenoble II, IAE Grenoble - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises - Grenoble - Université Pierre Mendès-France - Grenoble II); S. Geindre (CERAG - Centre d'études et de recherches appliquées à la gestion - CNRS : UMR5820 - Université Pierre Mendès-France - Grenoble II, IAE Grenoble - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises - Grenoble - Université Pierre Mendès-France - Grenoble II)
    Abstract: L'objectif de l'article est de mieux identifier les risques relatifs au processus repreneurial dans sa phase amont (de la prise de décision de reprendre jusqu'à la signature du protocole d'accord). Les risques sont identifiés à partir de 7 cas d'entreprises en situation d'échec suite à leur reprise. L'inférence retenue est l'abduction. Nous montrons que ces risques semblent résulter de différentes incohérences entre l'état de quatre paramètres du projet de reprise : les aspirations du repreneur (A), ses compétences (Co), les caractéristiques de la cible (Ci) et les composantes environnementales (E).
    Keywords: reprise d'entreprise, risque, processus, abduction
    Date: 2011
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00661565&r=ent
  9. By: Rousselière, D.; Joly, I.
    Abstract: De nombreux travaux en économie industrielle et écologie des organisations s’intéressent de manière récente au lien entre l’âge de l’organisation et sa probabilité de disparition. Testant quatre propositions théoriques relatives à la relation entre âge et mortalité, nous développons ici une approche de la survie des coopératives agricoles françaises en comparaison avec les autres entreprises avec lesquelles elles sont en concurrence. Pour cela, nous mobilisons un modèle semi-paramétrique à temps discret (de type cloglog) intégrant l’hétérogénéité inobservée et isolant les effets des périodes de ceux de l’âge. Cette analyse met en évidence une dynamique temporelle particulière des coopératives. Nous proposons en conclusion quelques explications de ce fait stylisé en relation avec la compétition entre organisations.
    Keywords: ORGANISATION INDUSTRIELLE;ECOLOGIE DES ORGANISATIONS;COOPERATIVES AGRICOLES;MODELE DE SURVIE;MODELE CLOGLOG;FUSIONS
    JEL: C41 Q13 L25
    Date: 2011
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gbl:wpaper:201107&r=ent
  10. By: Kranzusch, Peter; Suprinovic, Olga
    Abstract: Die Gründungsstatistik des IfM Bonn enthielt bisher keine Angaben zu nichtgewerblichen Gründungen, darunter auch freiberufliche. Zur Ermittlung einer alle Wirtschaftsbereiche umfassenden Gründungszahl wurden erstmals Angaben zur steuerlichen Anmeldung bei der Finanzverwaltung in Nordrhein-Westfalen ausgewertet. Demnach nahmen in den Jahren 2008 und 2009 rund 48.000 bzw. 46.000 Personen eine freiberufliche Tätigkeit neu auf. Bezogen auf alle Zugänge selbstständiger Erwerbstätigkeiten (ohne Geschäftsführer von ge-werblichen Personen- und Kapitalgesellschaften) einschließlich Nebenerwerb betrug der Anteil der Freien Berufe jeweils rund 30 %. Dieser Befund bestätigt die relative Bedeutung der Freien Berufe für das Gründungsgeschehen in Nordrhein-Westfalen sowie in Deutschland insgesamt. -- So far the business start-up statistics as compiled by IfM Bonn did not contain data with regard to non-commercial start-ups, especially start-ups in the liberal professions. In order to calculate the total number of start-ups in all economic sectors, IfM Bonn has analysed for the first time tax registration data of enterprise starters which are regularly collected by the tax administration in the Federal State of Northrhine-Westphalia. The results show that in the years 2008 and 2009 some 48.000 and 46.000 persons respectively started self-employment in the liberal professions. Referring to all new-entrants (without managing directors of commercial partnerships and incorporated companies) and including part-time self-employment, the share of liberal professions in the total number of start-ups amounts to approx. 30%. These findings confirm the economic importance of the liberal professions in Germany.
    Keywords: Existenzgründung,Freie Berufe,Gründungsstatistik,Nordrhein-Westfalen,Steuerliche Anmeldung,business start-up,liberal professions,start-up statistics,Northrhine-Westphalia,tax registration
    JEL: C80 J44 L84 M13 O15
    Date: 2011
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifmmat:211&r=ent

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