-
DIW Discussion Papers 1924 / 2020
The self-employed are among those facing the highest probability of strong income losses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Governments in many countries introduced support programs to support the self-employed, including the German federal government, which approved a €50bn emergency aid program at the end of March 2020 offering one-off lump-sum payments of up to €15,000 to those facing substantial revenue ...
2020| Joern Block, Alexander S. Kritikos, Maximilian Priem, Caroline Stiel
-
DIW Discussion Papers 1903 / 2020
We investigate how the economic consequences of the pandemic, and of the government-mandated measures to contain its spread, affected the self-employed relative to employed individuals in Germany and, secondly, to what extent the female self-employed were more strongly hit than their male counterparts. For our analysis, we use representative, real-time survey data where respondents are asked about ...
2020| Daniel Graeber, Alexander S. Kritikos, Johannes Seebauer
-
DIW Discussion Papers 1868 / 2020
Understanding the causes of the slowdown in aggregate productivity growth is key to maintaining the competitiveness of advanced economies and ensuring long-term economic prosperity. This paper is the first to provide evidence that investment in Knowledge-Based Capital (KBC), despite having a positive effect on productivity at the micro level, is a driver of the weak productivity performance at the ...
2020| Marie Le Mouel, Alexander Schiersch
-
DIW Discussion Papers 1849 / 2020
The superstar firms model provides a compelling explanation for two simultaneously occurring phenomena: the rise of concentration in industries and the fall of labor shares. Our empirical analysis confirms two of the underlying assumptions of the model: the market share increases and the labor share decreases with increasing firm-level total factor productivity, providing support for the superstar ...
2020| Alexander Schiersch, Caroline Stiel
-
DIW Discussion Papers 1829 / 2019
As the policy debate on entrepreneurship increasingly centers on firm growth in terms of job creation, it is important to better understand which variables influence the first hiring decision and which ones influence the subsequent survival as an employer. Using the German Socioeconomic Panel (SOEP), we analyze what role individual characteristics of entrepreneurs play in sustainable job creation. ...
2019| Marco Caliendo, Frank M. Fossen, Alexander S. Kritikos
-
DIW Discussion Papers 1788 / 2019
This paper analyzes the effect of agglomeration economies on firms’ total factor productivity. We propose the use of a control function approach to overcome the econometric issue inherent to the two-stage approach commonly used in the literature. Estimations are conducted separately for four industry groups, defined by technological intensity, to allow for non-uniform effects of agglomeration economies ...
2019| Martin Gornig, Alexander Schiersch
-
DIW Discussion Papers 1774 / 2018
A rich literature links knowledge inputs with innovative outputs. However, most of what is known is restricted to manufacturing. This paper analyzes whether the three aspects involving innovative activity - R&D; innovative output; and productivity - hold for knowledge intensive services. Combining the models of Crepon et al. (1998) and of Ackerberg et al. (2015), allows for causal interpretation of ...
2018| David B. Audretsch, Marian Hafenstein, Alexander S. Kritikos, Alexander Schiersch
-
DIW Discussion Papers 1763 / 2018
The human personality predicts a wide range of activities and occupational choices—from musical sophistication to entrepreneurial careers. However, which method should be applied if information on personality traits is used for prediction and advice? In psychological research, group profiles are widely employed. In this contribution, we examine the performance of profiles using the example of career ...
2018| Alexander Konon, Alexander Kritikos
-
DIW Discussion Papers 1732 / 2018
We analyze whether start-up rates in different industries systematically change with business cycle variables. Using a unique data set at the industry level, we mostly find correlations that are consistent with counter-cyclical influences of the business cycle on entries in both innovative and non-innovative industries. Entries into the largescale industries, including the innovative part of manufacturing, ...
2018| Alexander Konon, Michael Fritsch, Alexander S. Kritikos
-
SOEPpapers 1108 / 2020
We investigate how the economic consequences of the pandemic, and of the government-mandated measures to contain its spread, affected the self-employed relative to employed individuals in Germany and, secondly, to what extent the female self-employed were more strongly hit than their male counterparts. For our analysis, we use representative real-time survey data in which respondents were asked about ...
2020| Daniel Graeber, Alexander S. Kritikos, Johannes Seebauer