The "Unternehmensregister" (Business Register): More detailed Information on German SMEs

The "Unternehmensregister" (Business Register) is an official data set constructed during the last decade including detailed information about all German firms and establishments. The distinctiveness of the "Unternehmensregister" is that it merges information from different sources, e.g. the tax authorities, the Federal Employment Office as well as from the Statistical Offices. Therefore, analyses of the "Unternehmensregister" allow for discovering a hitherto unavailable synopsis of detailed evidence about firms and establishments in Germany, including information about employees, turnover and - with some restrictions - about business groups. All information is available on highly disaggregated sectoral and regional levels.

On the basis of that new dataset, the present project is analysing a series of research questions regarding the role of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) - the German "Mittelstand" - in the economy using the Federal State of Baden-Württemberg. Inter alia, we will assess the relevance of the "Mittelstand" considering a series of indicators in different sectors and regions. Special emphasis will be given to the new EU-definition of SMEs (see www.europa.eu.int/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/n26026.htm). Existing strengths and weaknesses of the new dataset will be worked out, strategies will be developed to cope with weaknesses, and the role of public companies and groups will be considered.

Publication: The Final Report [PDF: 760 KB] (in German) can be downloaded from here.