Synthetic Longitudinal Business Database (SynLBD)
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- What is the Synthetic Longitudinal Business Database (SynLBD)?
The Synthetic Longitudinal Business Database (SynLBD) is an experimental synthetic longitudinal business microdata product that protects the confidentiality of establishments’ information. The SynLBD contains 21 million establishment records covering all sectors for 1976–2000. It contains the establishment's synthetic 3–digit SIC code, first year of existence, last year of existence, annual payroll, annual employment, and multi–unit status. The SynLBD contains no geographic or firm–level information.
- Does the SynLBD contain information at the establishment level?
Yes, the SynLBD synthesizes all establishments with paid employees between 1976 and 2000. Key characteristics include establishment employment, payroll, industry of activity and establishment age.
- Are the establishments in the SynLBD real establishments?
No, the establishments in the SynLBD are fully synthesized. The data are fully modeled to retain the moments (e.g., means and variances) in the confidential Longitudinal Business Database.
- Does the SynLBD contain firm identifiers?
No, the SynLBD does not provide any firm information beyond whether the establishment belongs to a single unit or a multi–unit firm. Actual firms are not synthesized in the current version so it is not possible to compute statistics by firm characteristics such as firm age or firm size.
- Does the SynLBD contain geographic information?
The current version of the SynLBD does not contain any geographic information. It is not possible to compute statistics at the state or county level.
- Why are results from the SynLBD validated against the real data?
Census is actively working on a new version of the SynLBD. We offer users the opportunity to validate their results so we can learn where future improvements are needed. The validation request may or may not be granted depending on the nature of the request.
More Questions?
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What is Synthetic Data?
Data that replicates the structure and statistical properties of the original confidential dataset, without using original content.
What is the BDS?
The Business Dynamics Statistics (BDS) is a public–use data set of annual aggregate statistics describing establishment openings and closings, firm startups, job creation and destruction by firm size, age, industrial sector, and state.
What is the
VirtualRDC?
The Virtual RDC provides access to public–use data products and a computing environment that mirrors the Census Bureau RDCs.
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