High-Growth Firms in the United States: Key Trends and New Data Opportunities
March 2024
Working Paper Number:
CES-24-11
Abstract
Using administrative data from the U.S. Census Bureau, we introduce a new public-use database that tracks activities across firm growth distributions over time and by firm and establishment characteristics. With these new data, we uncover several key trends on high-growth firms'critical engines of innovation and economic growth. First, the share of firms that are high-growth has steadily decreased over the past four decades, driven not only by falling firm entry rates but also languishing growth among existing firms. Second, this decline is particularly pronounced among young and small firms, while the share of high-growth firms has been relatively stable among large and old firms. Third, the decline in high-growth firms is found in all sectors, but the information sector has shown a modest rebound beginning in 2010. Fourth, there is significant variation in high-growth firm activity across states, with California, Texas, and Florida having high shares of high-growth firms. We highlight several areas for future research enabled by these new data.
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market,
growth,
corporation,
executive,
acquisition,
entrepreneurship,
sector,
proprietor,
firms size,
larger firms,
firm growth,
firms grow,
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innovation,
stock,
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firm dynamics,
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firms age,
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Census Bureau Center for Economic Studies,
Longitudinal Business Database,
North American Industry Classification System,
Census Bureau Disclosure Review Board,
Federal Reserve Board of Governors,
Business Dynamics Statistics,
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