Who Starts a Business and who is Self-Employed in Germany Volume 6 Jena Economic Research Papers 2012-01-26 2012 2007 2012-001 Entrepreneurship Self-Employment Start-ups Germany Based on representative data, the German Micro-Census, we provide an overview of the development of self-employment and entrepreneurship in Germany between 1991 and 2011, the first two decades after reunification. We investigate the socio-economic background of these individuals, their education, previous employment status, and their income level. We observe a unique increase in self-employment in Germany by 40 percent which can partly be attributed to the transformation process of East Germany and to the shift to the service sector. We notice a yearly start-up rate of 1 percent among the working population (almost 20 percent of them being re-starters), a decision that pays for the majority of individuals in terms of income. Contrary to other countries, in Germany there is a positive relationship between educational levels and the probability of starting a business. jportal_jpjournal_00000016 2012-01-23T13:25:47.520Z 2012-01-23T13:24:02.846Z