Does the Quality of Employment Differ Between New and Incumbent Firms? First Results for Germany Based on the Establishment History Panel

The present contribution is addressing the question whether and how qualitative aspects of employmentlike part-time, wages or em-ployees ' qualification structure, among othersdiffer between new and established firms. Although a wide strand of literature in entrepreneur-ship research analyzes the employment effects of new firms vs. incum-bents, our knowledge about differences in these qualitative aspects of employment is rather poor. On the other hand, various studies in labor market research account for the consequences of technological and organizational innovations on the characteristics of jobs, but they rarely account for the relevance of firm start-ups. Based on the Estab-lishment History Panel, which has been made available only recently, we are able to address some of these questions in more detail than it has been possible so far. We find significant differences between newly-founded and incumbent firms regarding a flexibility component which is derived from a Principal Components Analysis. However, we do not find young firms and incumbents to vary significantly in terms of a general quality component