TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Lergetporer, Philipp
AU  - Ruhose, Jens
AU  - Simon, Lisa
        TI  - Entry Barriers and the Labor Market Outcomes of Incumbent Workers: Evidence from a Deregulation Reform in the German Crafts Sector
        PY  - 2018/Sep/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 11857
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp11857
        AB  - We study the labor market outcomes of a deregulation reform in Germany that removed licensing requirements to become self-employed in some occupations. Using longitudinal social security data, we implement a matched difference-in-differences design with entropy balancing to account for observable characteristics and unobserved individual heterogeneity. The reform tripled the number of businesses within ten years and led to slower earnings growth and higher unemployment for incumbent workers in deregulated occupations. However, the reform effect seems rather small, which we attribute to the relatively low competitiveness of new businesses. Supporting this view, the reform did not lead to overall employment growth.
        KW  - entropy balancing
KW  - labor market outcomes
KW  - self-employment
KW  - entry barriers
KW  - deregulation
KW  - matched difference-in-differences
        ER  -