Getting Back into the Labor Market: The Effects of Start-Up Subsidies for Unemployed Females

43 Pages Posted: 6 Oct 2012

See all articles by Marco Caliendo

Marco Caliendo

University of Potsdam; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Steffen Künn

University of Potsdam

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: October 6, 2012

Abstract

A shortage of skilled labor and low female labor market participation are problems many developed countries have to face. Besides activating inactive women, one possible solution is to support the re-integration of unemployed women. Due to female-specific labor market constraints (preferences for flexible working hours, discrimination), this is a difficult task, and the question arises whether active labor market policies (ALMP) are an appropriate tool to do so. Promoting self-employment among the unemployed might be promising. Starting their own business might give women more independence and flexibility in allocating their time to work and family. Access to long-term informative data allows us to close existing research gaps, and we investigate the impact of two start-up programs on long-run labor market and fertility outcomes of female participants. We find that start-up programs persistently integrate former unemployed women into the labor market and partly improve their income situations. The impact on fertility is less detrimental than for traditional ALMP programs.

Keywords: start-up subsidies, evaluation, long-term effects, female labor force participation, fertility

JEL Classification: J68, C14, H43

Suggested Citation

Caliendo, Marco and Künn, Steffen, Getting Back into the Labor Market: The Effects of Start-Up Subsidies for Unemployed Females (October 6, 2012). IZA Discussion Paper No. 6830, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2157972 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2157972

Marco Caliendo (Contact Author)

University of Potsdam ( email )

August-Bebel Strasse 89
Potsdam, 14482
Germany
+49(0)331/9773225 (Phone)
+49(0)331/9773210 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.uni-potsdam.de/en/empwifo/news.html

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Steffen Künn

University of Potsdam ( email )

August-Bebel Strasse 89
Potsdam, 14482
Germany

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
42
Abstract Views
619
PlumX Metrics