Information on Mittelstand enterprises

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Dossier Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy per se fulfills important economic functions: It helps to ensure legal certainty, planning security and equal treatment.

SME Development Barometer

IfM Bonn uses the "Survey on the Access to Finance of Enterprises", to report semiannually on the current ...

28.08.2024 Mutterschutzgesetz gilt nicht für selbstständige Frauen

Rund 27.000 selbstständig erwerbstätige Frauen bekommen jährlich ein Kind. Anders als abhängig beschäftigte Frauen haben sie keinen Anspruch auf Mutterschaftsleistungen nach dem Mutterschutzgesetz, weil dieses für sie nicht gilt. Sie können sich aber freiwillig über ihre gesetzliche (GKV) oder …

27.08.2024 New IfM podcast: "SMEs, climate protection and digitalisation. How rele-vant is regulatory policy to the challenges we currently face?"

Regulatory policy is often neglected in the debate about the challenges of the digital transformation and the fight against climate change.

The economic contribution of small and medium-sized enterprises remains high despite the current crises

IfM scientist appointed to jury

SME Development Indicator of the IfM Bonn

All news

IfM-Position Paper

In need of a paradigm shift – Rethinking bureaucracy reduction and regulation policies

Highly complex economies and societies need regulations to ensure their ability to function. These ensure legal and planning certainty and prevent corruption. However, especially in the view of SMEs, the "optimal" level of bureaucracy – which is difficult to determine empirically – seems to be far exceeded by now.

According to a recent study by IfM Bonn (Holz, Icks & Nielen 2023), the bureaucratic burden on companies goes well beyond the statistically measured time and cost expenditures.

Figure of the months

8 out of 10

entrepreneurs see their enjoyment of entrepreneurial activity diminish due to the bureaucratic burden.

Patterns of personality: An explanatory approach to innovation in lagging regions?

In the innovation process of lagging regions, which are typically characterized by low levels of private research and develop-ment (R&D) and the absence of large firms ...