Business Estimates from the Office of Advocacy: A Discussion of Methodology

Posted: 1 Dec 2009

See all articles by Brian Headd

Brian Headd

U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy

Date Written: 2005

Abstract

The Office of Advocacy creates estimates of the numberof employer and non employer businesses for recent years, since the newest available data have around a two-year lag. Advocacy estimates the number of nonemployers using growth rates from Internal Revenue Service's sole proprietor count estimates. Advocacy estimates the number of employers using the net difference in employer births and deaths from the Employment and Training Administration. Analysis shows that historical estimates have been close to the actualfigures, as employers and nonemployers exhibited slow steady growth during theperiod of analysis. Non employers, however, tended to be slightly underestimated as sole proprietors have consistently grown faster than non employers in recent years. As more data become available, more sophisticated techniques could beemployed to create current estimates of the number of businesses.

Keywords: Closing firms, Sole proprietorships, Nonemployer firms, Research methods, Firm performance, Employers, Firm births, Datasets

Suggested Citation

Headd, Brian, Business Estimates from the Office of Advocacy: A Discussion of Methodology (2005). University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership Historical Research Reference in Entrepreneurship, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1513808

Brian Headd (Contact Author)

U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy ( email )

409 Third Street, SW
Washington, DC 20416
United States

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