Disability and self-employment in Germany

Entrepreneurs are as unique as their businesses. The success of their entrepreneurial endeavors is partly determined by their personality and their demographics. A relevant demographic attribute in this retrospect can be a “disability” – and this is the topic of the cumulative dissertation at hand. The role of people with disabilities on the labor market has become more important in public and political discussion due to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Hence, the topic has a high relevance in the sense of having a self-determined life with the freedom of choosing your own type of occupation: working either as a dependent professional or being self-employed and starting your own business. Entering entrepreneurship can be advantageous for people with disabilities: An increased flexibility concerning working hours, less trouble with team members and especially a possibility to join and stay active on the labor market, if there are no other alternatives available. The dissertation at hand is an analysis about entrepreneurs with disability in Germany. The included papers consist of two quantitative analyses and one analysis of current related literature. The attributes “disability” in terms of the German law and “health” in terms of self-assessment of individuals are used in the analysis on their own as well as combined. This is important, as the specific context, which people with disabilities are facing in Germany, might influence them in their vocational choice. In this regard, “Disability” is not a fixed term, but can be interpreted from a medical, social and legal point of view – interpretations that can be found in the cited studies of the dissertation. The federal state may grant affirmative action for people with disabilities, e.g. additional paid leave, extended job protection or free disability aids, for individuals, who apply for an official status as an recognized disabled individual, which is admitted by the pension office. The relevant indicator is the recognized degree of disability. Regression analyses, including the degree of disability as an independent variable of interest, using the representative Mikrozensus dataset illustrate: In Germany a disability indicates a significant negative influence on the chance of an individual of being self-employed.

The age of individuals plays a vital part in this regard. With an increasing age the number of people with a disability within an age groups rises and the distribution of the people with disability changes. Many skilled workers attain a disability later in life.
One must differ between individuals, who were either already born with a disability or attained the status within their youth and individuals, who were affected by a disability in later years. Many young people with disabilities received additional support during their schooling time and were not necessarily part of the regular school system. This start in their education can have a decisive influence on their further educational career and their occupational choice. On the contrary, individuals who were affected by a disability later in life did pursue a regular educational career and often take up a profession. With rising age, the number of individuals with a disability within an age group in Germany rises and the in-group distribution changes. Many skilled workers or managers with vocational experience acquire a disability not until this state of their occupational career. This circumstance might indicate that their occupation choice changes in that case. Nonetheless, regression analyses within in the dissertation show that in both regarded age groups (25 to 44 years and 45 to 64 years) a disability has a negative significant influence on the chance of an individual on being self-employed. In many states people with disabilities have a higher self-employment rate than people without disabilities. The results of the dissertation show: Germany is an exception.

A blind spot of the analysis is the type of disability, as few quantitative data is available. The narrative “mental disability” and “entrepreneurship” has been an increasing topic in recent years in media coverage, not least due to the suicide of some prominent entrepreneurs. The cited literature illustrates how difficult and fickle the phenomena of “mental disability” is. A literature review discusses studies, that describe chances but also barriers for people with a mental disability to join entrepreneurship. The studies are clustered on an individual and a societal level and the focus is set on the German context. An original model concerning the occupational choice of mentally disabled entrepreneurs is provided. The result is not clear but ambiguous and a sign, that more research is needed.

The attribute “health“ is sometimes used as a latent variable for “disability”. A final multivariate analysis demonstrates that the negative influence of the attribute “disability” on the likelihood of an individual being self-employed stays constant, if the variable “health” is included as an additional independent variable. On the other hand, the likelihood of entering entrepreneurship is mainly determined by “health”, while the likelihood of leaving “entrepreneurship” is determined by “disability”. The results show that “disability” and “health” cannot be used synonymous but have their own effect on entrepreneurs in Germany.

The dissertation closes with a summary of the results and general recommendations for additional research and managerial options.