Business Dynamics Statistics Briefing: Entrepreneurship Across States

Summarizes findings from new measures of business dynamics on the average percentage of jobs in each state that are created by young firms in 2000-05. Examines regional variations among states and explores correlations with average net employment growth

Business Dynamics Statistics: An Overview

Describes new measures of business dynamics at the economy-wide, broad industry, state, firm size, and firm age levels of aggregation. Outlines findings on the effects of business formation on employment growth and churn rates among young businesses

Business Dynamics Statistics Briefing: Jobs Created From Business Startups in the United States

Summarizes findings from new measures of business dynamics on jobs created by business start-ups in 1980-2005, compared with average annual net employment growth. Analyzes data by the start-ups' firm size

Expanding the Role of Synthetic Data at the U.S. Census Bureau

National Statistical offices (NSOs) create official statistics from data collected directly from survey respondents, from government administrative records and from other third party sources. The raw source data, regardless of origin, is usually considered to be confidential. In the case of the U.S. Census Bureau, confidentiality of survey and administrative records microdata is mandated by statute, and this mandate to protect confidentiality is often at odds with the needs of data users to extract as much information as possible from rich microdata. Traditional disclosure protection techniques applied to resolve this tension have resulted in official data products that come no where close to fully utilizing the information content of the underlying microdata. Typically, these products take for the form of basic, aggregate tabulations. In a few cases anonymized public-use micro samples are made available, but these are increasingly under risk of re-identification by the ever larger amounts of information about individuals and firms that is available in the public domain. One potential approach for overcoming these risks is to release products based on synthetic or partially synthetic data where values are simulated from statistical models designed to mimic the (joint) distributions of the underlying microdata rather than making the actual underlying microdata available. We discuss recent Census Bureau work to develop and deploy such products. We also discuss the benefits and challenges involved with extending the scope of synthetic data products in official statistics

Productivity, investment in ICT and market experimentation: micro evidence from Germany und the US

This paper examines the relationship between the use of advanced technologies such as ICT, and outcomes such as productivity, the skill mix of the workforce and wages using micro data for the U.S. and Germany. We find support to the idea that U.S. businesses engage in experimentation in a variety of ways not matched by their German counterparts. In particular, there is greater experimentation amongst young U.S. businesses and also among those actively changing their technology. This is evidenced in a greater dispersion in productivity and related key business choices. We also find that the mean impact of adopting new technology on productivity and wages is greater the in U.S. than in Germany. -- Dieses Papier untersucht die Beziehung zwischen dem Einsatz neuer Technologien, wie von IKT, und betrieblichen Kenngrößen wie der Produktivität, der Qualifikationsstruktur und den Löhnen, wobei Mikrodaten für die USA und Deutschland verwendet wurden. Dabei kann die Hypothese unterstützt werden, dass in den USA Betriebe stärker experimentieren - gemessen anhand der Streuung der Produktivität und anderen betrieblichen Entscheidungsvariablen - als in Deutschland. Dies zeigt sich insbesondere bei jungen Betrieben und bei Betrieben, die ihre Technologie verändern. Wir finden ebenfalls einen größeren durchschnittlichen Einfluss der Einführung neuer Technologien auf die Produktivität und die Löhne in den USA als in Deutschland.ICT,Experimentation,Productivity,Internet Use,U.S.,Germany

Volatility and Dispersion in Business Growth Rates: Publicly Traded versus Privately Held Firms

We study the variability of business growth rates in the U.S. private sector from 1976 onwards. To carry out our study, we exploit the recently developed Longitudinal Business Database (LBD), which contains annual observations on employment and payroll for all U.S. businesses. Our central finding is a large secular decline in the cross sectional dispersion of firm growth rates and in the average magnitude of firm level volatility. Measured the same way as in other recent research, the employment-weighted mean volatility of firm growth rates has declined by more than 40% since 1982. This result stands in sharp contrast to previous findings of rising volatility for publicly traded firms in COMPUSTAT data. We confirm the rise in volatility among publicly traded firms using the LBD, but we show that its impact is overwhelmed by declining volatility among privately held firms. This pattern holds in every major industry group. Employment shifts toward older businesses account for 27 percent or more of the volatility decline among privately held firms. Simple cohort effects that capture higher volatility among more recently listed firms account for most of the volatility rise among publicly traded firms.

Language and Story: An Argument for the Right Reading of Tolkien’s Legendarium

Current views on the translation of Tolkien are that his works are completely translatable and understandable. The Lord of the Rings has been translated into many languages, and has sold millions the world over. While an argument cannot be made for the non-translation of Tolkien’s works, his tales should be experienced in English whenever possible. J.R.R. Tolkien was by profession a philologist, and by hobby a creator of languages and story. His life work was the creation of a unifying legendarium, spanning thousands of years and dozens of languages. These languages and Tolkien’s use of English form the backbone for the intentions and outcomes in the story. Without a proper understanding of the linguistic and cultural journey that takes place, Tolkien’s motives and the narrative thrust of the story are in many ways diminshed. Three options are available for a translator, with necessary but qualified translation being the preferred route for translation of Tolkien’s works

A Critical Analysis of Age-friendly Community Initiatives

Problem: As aging and urbanization trends converge, developing “age-friendly community initiatives” (AFCIs) has become a global movement and important policy area, aspiring to support people’s desires to age in place regardless of age, income, or ability level. This project interrogated how AFCIs have been operationalized in practice and in the lived experiences of older people. Methods: Situational analysis was a theory-methods package used to compare the conceptual frames undergirding AFCIs with expert knowledges and lay perspectives. Historical and literature reviews, participant observations, and semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with thirteen AFCI experts and seventeen older adults asked to chronicle their everyday lives using disposable cameras. Findings: The rational dreams of AFCIs and material realities of aging in place are misaligned. Older adults elucidated a moving tension between the daily interiority of identity and contingencies of a changing environment that produces a sensation characterized as the uncanny. The vicissitudes of life and precariousness of their positionalities exposed tactics for “passing” as creative forms of resistance to their expulsion from society. This revealed how there are normative structures around which formal systems or institutions involved with AFCIs could impinge upon older adults; highlighting society’s interest in ensuring they remain healthy and safe, lest they be a threat to themselves or burden on others. This project illuminated how aging in place finds meaning through the quotidian; the mundanity of this work is the crux of its poignancy. AFCIs form a biopolitical paradigm because they not only seek to rework boundaries between bodies and environments, they operate as modes of individual and population governance for the sake of health; yet, struggle to find ways to preserve the inclusion of older people in the ongoing social system. This project contributes to gerontological discourse and has theoretical and policy implications for aging in place inequities

Who Creates Jobs? Small vs. Large vs. Young

The view that small businesses create the most jobs remains appealing to policymakers and small business advocates. Using data from the Census Bureau Business Dynamics Statistics and Longitudinal Business Database, we explore the many issues at the core of this ongoing debate. We find that the relationship between firm size and employment growth is sensitive to these issues. However, our main finding is that once we control for firm age there is no systematic relationship between firm size and growth. Our findings highlight the important role of business startups and young businesses in U.S. job creation.