Start-up subsidies for the unemployed: Opportunities and limitations

New evidence on long-term effects of start-up subsidies: matching estimates and their robustness

“…5 For a description and evaluations of the predecessor programs, see Caliendo and Künn (2011; Caliendo et al (2016). together, this information suggests that the most important confounders in our analysis are the individuals' re-employment probability in the absence of treatment and their entrepreneurial affinity. Arguably, the former can be controlled for relatively well using pre-treatment labor market outcomes, local labor market conditions and measures of human capital.…”

“…Arguably, the former can be controlled for relatively well using pre-treatment labor market outcomes, local labor market conditions and measures of human capital. However, the latter is generally unobservable and difficult to proxy for (see Caliendo et al, 2016, for a detailed discussion of this issue) and thus at the center of our sensitivity analysis in Section 6.…”

The Post‐Reform Effectiveness of the New German Start‐Up Subsidy for the Unemployed

“…However, it is often feared that these types of programs have large deadweight effects and that money could be spent more effectively by subsidizing only a few but very promising businesses instead (see Shane, ; for this type of argument). The empirical evidence on the effects of SUS as a labor market policy is quite strong: effects on employment probabilities and earned income are positive and relatively large in magnitude for most countries (Caliendo, ). Research has also shown that effects of these types of programs are heterogeneous with respect to certain characteristics like age, education, qualification, and migration status.…”

“…() for France, O'Leary () for Hungary and Poland, Perry () for New Zealand, Rodríguez‐Planas and Jacob () for Romania, and Behrenz et al . () for Sweden; Caliendo () provides a summary of international evidence on the effectiveness and institutional set‐up of start‐up subsidies.…”

Comment: Effectiveness of public support for R&D and entrepreneurship

“…Subsidized start-ups for the unemployed is a policy that has also been introduced in a number of other countries. As Caliendo (2016) reports in his survey of the literature, these policies have generally been effective in terms of job creation, but not so successful in creating long-lasting firms.…”