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Notes
1 This approximation to identify voluntary firm closures has been validated by real exit dates of
voluntary closures obtained from the ZEW Founder Study (see Almus et al. 2001 for details on
the survey).
2 Within-industry experience is measured as previous entrepreneurial experience within the
same NACE-4-digit category for each considered firm.
3 Multiple entrepreneurial experiences are given if an entrepreneur has been involved in more
than one firm prior to participation in the business considered.
4 Using different graphical methods for testing reveals no grounds for a violation of the PH-
assumption.
5 Table 4 reports coefficients rather than hazard rates. To obtain hazard rates the coefficients
have to be exponentiated. Since exp(0.315) = 1.370 the closure probability increases by about 37
percent.