Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/283192 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
Jena Economic Research Papers No. 2024-001
Publisher: 
Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Jena
Abstract: 
We describe and analyze the long-term development of self-employment in German regions between 1895 and 2019. Based on rankings ("league tables") for the two years we identify those regions where the relative level of self-employment significantly increased ('leapfroggers'), and those where the level of self-employment as compared to other regions deteriorated ('plungers'). Germany is a particularly interesting case due to the turbulent history of the country over the 20th century that includes two lost World Wars, occupation by foreign armies, forty years of division into a capitalist and a socialist state, as well as reunification and shock transformation of the eastern part to a market economy. While there is some persistence of regional self-employment despite all the disruptive changes, we also find and discuss considerable changes of regional levels of entrepreneurial activity.
Subjects: 
Entrepreneurship
self-employment
regional dynamics
JEL: 
L26
R11
O52
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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