The Impact of Start-Ups on the Qualification, Age and Wage Structure of the Employment in Baden-Württemberg

During the last few years company start-ups have emerged as a popular object for research and especially economic science has examined them from many different angles. A central aspect has always been the question if and how new companies can contribute to employment growth. Many studies show that new companies indeed create new jobs. However, the number of those jobs created by start-ups is relatively small compared to newly-created jobs by well-established companies, so that the creation of employment by new firms is rather insignificant. An important aspect which so far has been rather neglected is the quality of the newly-created employment:

• In which way does the quality of jobs created in start-ups differ from the quality of jobs created by well-established firms in the same region / sector? (Potential aspects of quality could be: working hours (full time, part time) marginal employment, qualification structure, level and variation of wages, stability of employment.)
• In which way do start-ups in Baden-Württemberg differ from those in Germany or in other Federal States?
• To what extend do start-ups feature – also compared to well-established companies – employment for elderly persons, women or resident aliens?
• How do the mentioned aspects change over time?
• In which way do successful start-ups differ from less successful ones? Which impact do the quality of the employment and the age structure of the employees exert on the development of start-ups? Can differences be identified in the development of start-ups which e.g. feature a higher share of full-time employment or elder employees?

These and further questions are answered by the project at hand in the form of differentiated descriptive and multivariate analyses particularly based on the recently improved data of the Establishment History Panel of the Federal Employment Office. The focus of the project is on Baden-Württemberg.

[IAW Policy Reports 2/2010: Die Bedeutung von Unternehmensgründungen für die Entwicklung der Qualifikations-, Alters- und Lohnstruktur der Arbeitsplätze in Baden-Württemberg]