Measuring the Dynamics of Young and Small Businesses: Integrating the Employer and Nonemployer Universes

We develop a preliminary version of an Integrated Longitudinal Business Database (ILBD) that combines administrative records and survey-based data for virtually all employer and nonemployer business units in the United States. In the process, we confront conceptual and practical issues that arise in measuring the importance and dynamic behavior of younger and smaller businesses. We also document some basic facts about younger and smaller businesses. In doing so, we exploit the ability of the ILBD to follow business transitions between employer and nonemployer status, and vice-versa. This aspect of the ILBD opens a new frontier for the study of business formation and the precursors to job creation in the U.S. economy.