ZEW study
Company foundations decreased sharply – “gaps in innovation threaten”
A new study has dropped drastically since the mid -1990s, a new study has been shown. Especially in particularly important industrial sectors, it is clearly downhill.
According to a study by the Mannheim Economic Research Institute ZEW, fewer and fewer new companies are being built in Germany. Since the mid-nineties, the number of start-ups has dropped sharply, the analysis said that the German Press Agency has existed.
In 2023, a slight plus was recorded by 1.3 percent to around 161,000 new companies. After Corona pandemic, there are more foundations in gastronomy, but significantly less in industry. At the beginning of the ZEW series in 1995, around 240,000 new companies were created.
“Fewer new start-ups mean fewer competition, fewer investments and less good prospects for the German economy,” warned Zew professor Hanna Hottenrott. Politicians have to make start -ups more attractive.
Bureaucracy inhibits start -ups
According to the study, the decline is particularly strong in research -intensive industrial sectors such as mechanical engineering, chemistry or electrical engineering. The foundation figures have more than halved here since 2002: from 1,400 to 625 in 2023. In less research-intensive industries such as the food and textile industry or the wood and cement industry, the decline at 27 percent is recently less, shows that Study for which the Creditreform Commercial Register data has evaluated and prepared.
An important reason for the falling start -up is bureaucracy. According to a ZEW survey among around 5,000 companies, young companies spend an average of nine hours a week with administrative tasks-from data protection requirements to reporting requirements. In addition, there would be a shortage of skilled workers and expensive energy, explains ZEW researcher Sandra Gottschalk.
In the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, the high energy costs are the main reason for the recent foundations, according to the study. In energy -intensive production, such as iron, steel and precious metals, the foundations also fell over ten percent in 2022 and 2023. In contrast, the numbers recently recovered in electrical engineering and mechanical engineering.
Missing innovations feared
Above all, the decline in research -intensive industries is questionable, says Gottschalk. “There are gaps in innovation that can also affect other industries in the German economy in the long term.”
From a total economic point of view, it is irrelevant whether innovations of young companies would come or from corporations. “If there are fewer new companies with radical ideas, the competitive pressure drops to the entire industry.”
dpa
Source: Stern
