New Evidence on Long-term Effects of Start-up Subsidies

New Evidence on Long-term Effects of Start-up Subsidies
Author: Marco Caliendo
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2019
Genre:
ISBN:

Download New Evidence on Long-term Effects of Start-up Subsidies Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

The German start-up subsidy (SUS) program for the unemployed has recently undergone a major make-over, altering its institutional setup, adding an additional layer of selection and leading to ambiguous predictions of the program's effectiveness. Using propensity score matching (PSM) as our main empirical approach, we provide estimates of long-term effects of the post-reform subsidy on individual employment prospects and labor market earnings up to 40 months after entering the program. Our results suggest large and persistent long-term effects of the subsidy on employment probabilities and net earned income. These effects are larger than what was estimated for the pre-reform program. Extensive sensitivity analyses within the standard PSM framework reveal that the results are robust to different choices regarding the implementation of the weighting procedure and also with respect to deviations from the conditional independence assumption. As a further assessment of the results' sensitivity, we go beyond the standard selection-on-observables approach and employ an instrumental variable setup using regional variation in the likelihood of receiving treatment. Here, we exploit the fact that the reform increased the discretionary power of local employment agencies in allocating active labor market policy funds, allowing us to obtain a measure of local preferences for SUS as the program of choice. The results based on this approach give rise to similar estimates. Thus, our results indicating that SUS are still an effective active labor market program after the reform do not appear to be driven by "hidden bias".

Do Start-up Subsidies for the Unemployed Affect Participants' Well-being?

Do Start-up Subsidies for the Unemployed Affect Participants' Well-being?
Author: Marco Caliendo
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2019
Genre:
ISBN:

Download Do Start-up Subsidies for the Unemployed Affect Participants' Well-being? Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

We estimate the long-term effects of start-up subsidies (SUS) for the unemployed on subjective outcome indicators of well-being, as measured by the participants' satisfaction in different domains. This extends previous analyses of the current German SUS program ("Gründungszuschuss") that focused on objective outcomes – such as employment and income – and allows us to make a more complete judgment about the overall effects of SUS at the individual level. This is especially important because subsidizing the transition into self-employment may have unintended adverse effects on participants' well-being due to its risky nature and lower social security protection, especially in the long run. Having access to linked administrative-survey data providing us with rich information on pre-treatment characteristics, we base our analysis on the conditional independence assumption and use propensity score matching to estimate causal effects within the potential outcomes framework. We find long-term positive effects on job satisfaction but negative effects on individuals' satisfaction with their social security situation. Further findings suggest that the negative effect on satisfaction with social security may be driven by negative effects on unemployment and retirement insurance coverage. Our heterogeneity analysis reveals substantial variation in effects across gender, age groups and skill levels. The sensitivity analyses show that these findings are highly robust.

OECD Studies on SMEs and Entrepreneurship Framework for the Evaluation of SME and Entrepreneurship Policies and Programmes 2023

OECD Studies on SMEs and Entrepreneurship Framework for the Evaluation of SME and Entrepreneurship Policies and Programmes 2023
Author: OECD
Publisher: OECD Publishing
Total Pages: 174
Release: 2023-02-13
Genre:
ISBN: 9264851089

Download OECD Studies on SMEs and Entrepreneurship Framework for the Evaluation of SME and Entrepreneurship Policies and Programmes 2023 Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Evaluation is the foundation of evidence-based policy. Yet there is a dearth of reliable impact evaluation in the area of SME and entrepreneurship policy. This publication issues OECD guidance on how governments can promote reliable SME and entrepreneurship policy evaluation.

Regional Effect Heterogeneity of Start-Up Subsidies for the Unemployed

Regional Effect Heterogeneity of Start-Up Subsidies for the Unemployed
Author: Marco Caliendo
Publisher:
Total Pages: 43
Release: 2013
Genre:
ISBN:

Download Regional Effect Heterogeneity of Start-Up Subsidies for the Unemployed Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Recent microeconometric evaluation studies have shown that start-up subsidies for unemployed individuals are an effective policy tool to improve long-term employment and income prospects of participants, in particular compared to other active labor market programs (e.g. training, job search assistance or job creation schemes). What has not been examined yet are the potentially heterogeneous effects of start-up programs across regional labor markets. Labor demand side restrictions in areas with relatively bad labor market conditions generally increase entries into start-up programs as job offers are limited and starting an own business is an opportunity to leave unemployment. However, the survival of firms in deprived areas is also lower, such that the overall effect remains an empirical question.We use a combination of administrative and survey data and observe participants in two distinct start-up programs in Germany for five years after start-up as well as a control group of unemployed who did not enter these programs. We add information on unemployment rates and GDP per capita at the labor agency district level to distinguish regional labor markets. Using propensity score matching methods we find supportive evidence that the founding process and development of businesses as well as program effectiveness is influenced by prevailing economic conditions at start-up.

Catching Up Or Lagging Behind?

Catching Up Or Lagging Behind?
Author: Marco Caliendo
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2019
Genre:
ISBN:

Download Catching Up Or Lagging Behind? Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

From an active labor market policy perspective, start-up subsidies for unemployed individuals are very effective in improving long-term labor market outcomes for participants. From a business perspective, however, the assessment of these public programs is less clear since they might attract individuals with low entrepreneurial abilities and produce businesses with low survival rates and little contribution to job creation, economic growth, and innovation. In this paper, we use a rich data set to compare participants of a German start-up subsidy program for unemployed individuals to a group of regular founders who started from non-unemployment and did not receive the subsidy. The data allows us to analyze their business performance up until 40 months after business formation. We find that formerly subsidized founders lag behind not only in survival and job creation, but especially also in innovation activities. The gaps in these business outcomes are relatively constant or even widening over time. Hence, we do not see any indication of catching up in the longer run. While the gap in survival can be entirely explained by initial differences in observable start-up characteristics, the gap in business development remains and seems to be the result of restricted access to capital as well as differential business strategies and dynamics. Considering these conflicting results for the assessment of the subsidy program from an ALMP and business perspective, policy makers need to carefully weigh the costs and benefits of such a strategy to find the right policy mix.

Econometric Evaluation of Labour Market Policies

Econometric Evaluation of Labour Market Policies
Author: Michael Lechner
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 364257615X

Download Econometric Evaluation of Labour Market Policies Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Empirical measurement of impacts of active labour market programmes has started to become a central task of economic researchers. New improved econometric methods have been developed that will probably influence future empirical work in various other fields of economics as well. This volume contains a selection of original papers from leading experts, among them James J. Heckman, Noble Prize Winner 2000 in economics, addressing these econometric issues at the theoretical and empirical level. The theoretical part contains papers on tight bounds of average treatment effects, instrumental variables estimators, impact measurement with multiple programme options and statistical profiling. The empirical part provides the reader with econometric evaluations of active labour market programmes in Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Slovak Republic and Sweden.

The Economics of Entrepreneurship

The Economics of Entrepreneurship
Author: Simon C. Parker
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 919
Release: 2018-04-03
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1107170664

Download The Economics of Entrepreneurship Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

This second edition provides a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the field of entrepreneurship, principally from an economics perspective.

Design and Effectiveness of Start-Up Subsidies

Design and Effectiveness of Start-Up Subsidies
Author: Marco Caliendo
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2021
Genre:
ISBN:

Download Design and Effectiveness of Start-Up Subsidies Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

While a growing body of literature finds positive impacts of Start-Up Subsidies (SUS) on labor market outcomes of participants, little is known about how the design of these programs shapes their effectiveness and hence how to improve policy. As experimental variation in program design is unavailable, we exploit the 2011 reform of the current German SUS program for the unemployed which strengthened case-workers' discretionary power, increased entry requirements and reduced monetary support. We estimate the impact of the reform on the program's effectiveness using samples of participants and non-participants from before and after the reform. To control for time-constant unobserved heterogeneity as well as differential selection patterns based on observable characteristics over time, we combine Difference-in-Differences with inverse probability weighting using covariate balancing propensity scores. Holding participants' observed characteristics as well as macroeconomic conditions constant, the results suggest that the reform was successful in raising employment effects on average. As these findings may be contaminated by changes in selection patterns based on unobserved characteristics, we assess our results using simulation-based sensitivity analyses and find that our estimates are highly robust to changes in unobserved characteristics. Hence, the reform most likely had a positive impact on the effectiveness of the program, suggesting that increasing entry requirements and reducing support in-creased the program's impacts while reducing the cost per participant.