Sample Design

The basis for the creation of the Mannheim Start-up Panel is firm data available at ZEW and provided by Creditreform – the Mannheim Enterprise Panel (Mannheimer Unternehmenspanel, MUP). The Mannheim Enterprise Panel contains all economically active firms in Germany (firms with commercial register entry and/or demand for debt and/or adequately intensive customer relations). From this data, new ventures can be identified according to their date of foundation. The resulting pool of new ventures constitutes the population for the gross sample of the start-up panel. Firms with which complete interviews can be conducted represent the net sample. Each year, 2,000 firms are (completely) surveyed for the first time while 3,000 firms from past waves are re-interviewed.