Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/29783 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
DIW Discussion Papers No. 936
Publisher: 
Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW), Berlin
Abstract: 
Why are female entrepreneurs so rare? Women have both to a lower entry rate into selfemployment and a higher exit rate in Germany. To explain the gender gap, a structural microeconometric model of the transition rates is estimated, which includes a standard risk aversion parameter. As inputs into the model, the expected value and variance of earnings from self-employment and dependent employment are estimated separately by gender, accounting for non-random selection into the employment states. The gender differential in the transition rates is decomposed using a novel extension of the Blinder-Oaxaca technique for nonlinear models. Women's higher estimated risk aversion is found to explain the largest part of their higher exit rate, but only a small part of their lower entry rate.
Subjects: 
Entrepreneurship
self-employment
risk aversion
gender differential
nonlinear Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition
JEL: 
J23
J16
D81
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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