Small Business Growth: Searching for Stylized Facts

While firm size data exists, little firm age data
exists. This has hampered efforts to understand
the life-cycle of firms overall and by industry.
There is a need to document the dynamics of new
firms and the effect of the business cycle on the
growth, decline and survival of firms.

Growing firms are generally a constant share of the
economy with a minor business cycle effect; firms
with employment growth outnumber firms with
employment decline, and fast growing firms in a
given year tend to revert to the mean in later years.

by Brian Headd,
U.S. Small Business Administration,
Office of Advocacy
and
Bruce Kirchhoff,
New Jersey Institute of Technology

Full Report: http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/rs311tot.pdf