Business Dynamics Statistics

Business Dynamics Statistics (BDS) – A research dataset based on the LBD that describes United States business dynamics across a wide range of measures.  Disclosure analysis is performed prior to release to the public to protect the confidentiality of LBD data.

Business Register (BR) – A comprehensive database of all U.S. business establishments developed and maintained by the U.S. Census Bureau, with data beginning in 1975 and continuing to the present. This is restricted data and is the source data for the Longitudinal Business Database (LBD).

Censoring – A statistical term indicating that a value cannot be known with certainty.  Within the BDS, all firms/establishments born prior to 1976 have an unknown birth year and are therefore of an unknown age and are grouped into the age category “Left Censored”.

Employment – Paid employment consists of full and part-time employees, including salaried officers and executives of corporations, who were on the payroll in the pay period including March 12. Included are employees on sick leave, holidays, and vacations; not included are proprietors and partners of unincorporated businesses.

Establishment – A single physical location where business is conducted or where services or industrial operations are performed.

Establishment Age (AGE4) – Establishment age is computed from the data. Birth year is defined as the year an establishment first reports positive employment in the LBD. Establishment age is computed by taking the difference between the current year of operation and the birth year. Given that the LBD series starts in 1976 observed age is by construction left censored at 1975.

a)	0
b)	1
c)	2
d)	3
e)	4
f)	5
g)	6 to 10
h)	11 to 15
i)	16 to 20
j)	21 to 25
k)	26+
l)	Left Censored

Establishment Size (SIZE) – This categorical variable classifies establishments by size. Establishment size is defined as the average of year t-1 and year t employment.
Establishment size categories are:

a)	1 to 4
b)	5 to 9
c)	10 to 19
d)	20 to 49
e)	50 to 99
f)	100 to 249
g)	250 to 499
h)	500 to 999
i)	1000+

Firm – A firm is a business organization consisting of one or more domestic establishments that were specified under common ownership or control. The firm and the establishment are the same for single-establishment firms.

Firm Age (FAGE4) – Both establishment and firm age are computed from the data. Birth year is defined as the year an establishment first reports positive employment in the LBD. Establishment age is computed by taking the difference between the current year of operation and the birth year. Given that the LBD series starts in 1976 observed age is by construction left censored at 1975.

Firm age is computed for all firms in the LBD from the age of the establishments belonging to that particular firm. A firm is assigned an initial age by determining the age of the oldest establishment that belongs to the firm at time of birth. Firm age accumulates with every additional year after that. Note that mergers and acquisitions and divestitures could lead to abrupt changes in firm age purely from establishment composition issues if we defined firm age in each year using age of the oldest establishment owned in that year.

a)	0
b)	1
c)	2
d)	3
e)	4
f)	5
g)	6 to 10
h)	11 to 15
i)	16 to 20
j)	21 to 25
k)	26+
l)	Left Censored

Firm Size (FSIZE) – This categorical variable classifies establishments by firm size. Firm size is defined as the average of year t-1 and year t employment.
Firm size categories are:

a)	1 to 4
b)	5 to 9
c)	10 to 19
d)	20 to 49
e)	50 to 99
f)	100 to 249
g)	250 to 499
h)	500 to 999
i)	1000 to 2499
j)	2500 to 4999
k)	5000 to 9999
l)	10000+

Initial Establishment Size (ISIZE) – This categorical variable classifies establishments by initial size. Initial establishment size is defined for any given consecutive two-year period as the size at year t-1 except in cases when year t-1 employment is equal to zero in which case initial size is year t employment. Initial Establishment Size categories are identical to those for Establishment Size.

Initial Firm Size (IFSIZE) – This categorical variable classifies establishments by initial firm size. Initial firm size is defined for any given consecutive two-year period as the size at year t-1 except in cases when year t-1 employment is equal to zero in which case initial size is year t employment. Initial Firm Size categories are identical to those for Firm Size.

Job Creation (JC) – Job creation is the sum of all employment gains from expanding establishments from year t–1 to year t including establishment startups. Note that the contribution of firm births can be measured by using the job creation from establishments with firm age equal to zero.

Job Destruction (JD) – Job destruction is the sum of all employment losses from contracting establishments from year t–1 to year t including establishments shutting down.

Longitudinal Business Database (LBD) – A confidential research data product developed at the Census Bureau’s Center for Economic Studies (CES).  Based on the Business Register, it is comprised only of employer establishments and features longitudinal linking of establishments from one year to the next.

Longitudinal Linking – Use of a database primary key (a linking variable) to facilitate identification of an individual across multiple datasets.

Payroll – Total annual payroll includes all forms of compensation, such as salaries, wages, commissions, bonuses, vacation allowances, sick-leave pay, and the value of payments in kind (e.g., free meals and lodgings) paid during the year to all employees.

Sector (SIC1) – This categorical variable classifies establishments by the sector in which the establishment is classified. These are Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes.

State (STATE) – This categorical variable classifies establishments by the state in which the establishment resides. These are Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) codes developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Outlying territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, etc.) are not included in the BDS.

01 AL 02 AK 04 AZ 05 AR 06 CA 08 CO 09 CT 10 DE 11 DC 12 FL 13 GA

15 HI 16 ID 17 IL 18 IN 19 IA 20 KS 21 KY 22 LA 23 ME 24 MD 25 MA

26 MI 27 MN 28 MS 29 MO 30 MT 31 NE 32 NV 33 NH 34 NJ 35 NM 36 NY

37 NC 38 ND 39 OH 40 OK 41 OR 42 PA 44 RI 45 SC 46 SD 47 TN 48 TX

49 UT 50 VT 51 VA 53 WA 54 WV 55 WI 56 WY

Synthetic Longitudinal Business Database (SynLBD) – A research dataset based on the LBD that incorporates noise infusion techniques to perturb the data at the establishment level while maintaining integrity of macro level distributions.  The primary purpose of the SynLBD is to create a version of the LBD that may be freely released to the public.