Rural Economies As Dynamic As Suburban And Urban Areas. Rate Of Business Formation And Closure Shows Small Differences
| February 12, 2008 |  View for printing |
American rural economies are as dynamic as their suburban and urban counterparts are, finds a working paper released today by the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration. Southern Regional Advocate Pat Gartland discussed the paper’s findings at a meeting of the Thomasville, Georgia Chamber of Commerce.
“America has an entrepreneurial culture and entrepreneurs are found in every setting. The lesson learned here is that rural America's resilience should not be underestimated,” said Larry Plummer, assistant professor at Clemson University and co-author of the paper.
The authors’ central finding is that the differences in the rate of establishment births and closures between rural, suburban, and urban areas, while statistically significant, is in fact quite small. That is, general business dynamics are not a function of geographic area. The authors do suggest that further research may show that the dynamics of specific industries are shaped by geography.
While the rate of business births and closures is similar, the absolute differences in openings and closings remain large. For example, the average number of annual establishment births per county is 1,128 in urban areas, 182 in suburban areas, and 58 in rural areas.
Written by Larry Plummer and Brian Headd, the paper, Rural and Urban Establishment Births and Deaths Using the U.S. Census Bureau’s Business Information Tracking Series, (http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/rs316tot.pdf) analyzes a set of establishment birth and death tabulations now available from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Company Statistics Division.
For more information and a complete copy of the report, visit the Office of Advocacy website at http://www.sba.gov/advo.
The Office of Advocacy, the “small business watchdog” of the federal government, examines the role and status of small business in the economy and independently represents the views of small business to federal agencies, Congress, and the President. It is the source for small business statistics presented in user-friendly formats, and it funds research into small business issues.
###
The Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is an
independent voice for small business within the federal government. The
presidentially appointed Chief Counsel for Advocacy advances the views,
concerns, interests of small business before Congress, the White House,
federal agencies, federal courts, and state policy makers. For more
information, visit http://www.sba.gov/advo, or call (202) 205-6533.
No reader comments so far. Be the first to comment by clicking the button below.
Reprinted under the Fair Use doctrine of international copyright law. Full copyright retained by the original publication. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
