Small Firm Survival in France: Does Public Aid Make a Difference?

Tuesday, the 30th January at 10:30 AM,
room CV003 Uni Carl Vogt

Nordine Bendou

Université Lyon II

Abstract

Small Firm Survival in France: does Public Aid Make a difference? This paper examines whether receipt of a public support and more particularly the ACCRE program has a significant impact on firm survival in France. Putting into perspective factors of individual and business characteristics from the SINE survey (Information System on new businesses) concerning enterprises created in the first semester 2006 and following until second semester 2009. We estimate the survival probability of firms using a parametric duration model (Weibull). In order to control for the consequences of self-selection into the treatment group, the model is estimated using a propensity score matching method. The estimation is made firstly on the entire observations and secondly using only the former unemployed turned entrepreneurs. Our results suggest that receiving the ACCRE program reduces the probability of failure exclusively for the former unemployed individuals.

Keywords: Public Policy, Entrepreneurship, Survival, Business Cycle, Unemployment