Hi everyone,
First, the good news: the stock data are the simplest to get. These data can be accessed from the US Census Bureau's SUSB website. Look for the County Business Pattern files. These establishment data go back at least to 1990. BTW, Census seems to have stopped keeping the older data on their website, but they're probably still available online somewhere if not at a public or university library (sometimes on DVD-rom). Keep hunting-there are pockets of data all over the Census' website. You can even try other agency websites-the USDA's economics research service, for example, has a great central repository of data you might find helpful. You might also try youreconomy.org, which uses NETS data I think.
Now, the bad news: the birth data-aka 'dynamic' data-are trickier. For these, you might call Trey Cole at the Census' SUSB office and ask him for the "establishment birth and death tabulations" I requested years ago. These are county data of establishment births and deaths by industry. Census charges for staff time to process the data-you don't pay for the data per se. On the plus side, I already paid for the data covering 1990 to 2006 and I think Haifeng Qian at Iowa ordered more years of data after that. If you need to buy a few more years of data (processing), expect to pay a few grand and wait a few months for the data to be processed. Having said all this, I'm happy to share the data I have...
Finally, a few caveats: First, at county-level aggregation, you probably won't find firm data, only establishment data. If you really need the firm data, you might switch your geography to MSA or see if you can access the NETS data from Don Walls (maybe via the Edward Lowe Foundation?). Second, if you can switch to MSA, there are dynamic FIRM-level data available for this level of aggregation from the Census' BDS (business dynamic series?) files. Finally, generally speaking, there is almost always a 2 year lag in the most recent data. That's how long it takes agencies to collect, process, and release annual data.
Contact me directly if you have more questions!
Cheers,
Larry
Larry Plummer, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship
MBA '80 Faculty Fellow in Entrepreneurship
Director, Ivey New Venture Project
Ivey Business School at Western University
1255 Western Road
London, ON, Canada, N6G 0N1
519-850-2503
From: soumodip sarkar [mailto:ssarkar@UEVORA.PT]
Sent: Monday, April 04, 2016 1:55 PM
Subject: Historical business formation data by county (US)
Dear entrepreneurship scholars
I was wondering if anybody could help me with the following US data. I am looking for historical data by US county (going back at least thirty years), of either startup formation; or small businesses (stock variable). Suggestions for data sources are gratefully acknowledged.
Best regards
soumodip sarkar
Universidade de Évora, Portugal
Associate, Asia Center, Harvard University
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