The professions with their nearly 3 million persons employed achieve about 8 percent of the
gross domestic product, and with their start-up dynamic they contribute essentially to growth
and employment in the Federal Republic of Germany. Despite of this relevance there is no
primary data basis in Germany which focusses on professions. Moreover comprehensive empirically founded studies regarding start-ups of (liberal) professions so far are missing.
This study contributes with its central question: Which factors determine the success of a
start-up of (liberal) professions? Individual database is the German Socio-economic Panel
(SOEP), which is already used for broader start-up analyses, however not for liberal professions in particular. After laborious data editing procedures determinants for the start-up activity itself and the start-up success success (quantified by survivor probabilities three years
later) are quantified and discussed by logit, rare events logit and probit estimates.