Although entrepreneurial activity is an important part of a capitalist economy, data about U.S. businesses in their early years of operation have been extremely limited. Only recently has it become apparent what important contributions new and young businesses make to job creation and innovation...

We examine new firms created in 2004 and track their business status in the following four years using the Kauffman Firm Survey data. For firms that exited the sample during the 2004-2008 period, we distinguish between voluntary firm closure in the form of merger or acquisition and compulsory...

We analyze the impact of firm's asset uniqueness and its growth opportunities on the leasing decisions of U.S. startups. To test our hypotheses, we use a unique dataset provided by the Kauffman Foundation. Our results show that startups in the high-technology sector have a lower propensity to...

Only a few large, nationally-representative datasets include information on both the owner and the business. We briefly describe several of the most respected and up-to-date sources of data on entrepreneurs, the self-employed, and small businesses. More information including estimates of recent...

Financial capital is necessary not only for business formation but also for business survival and expansion: its role is well documented in the literature. While venture capital and IPOs often make the popular press, the fact is most firms are unable to tap into this market. Instead, they depend...