This report describes the Characteristics of Business Owners (CBO), 1992 microdata available to researchers at the Center for Economic Studies and the CBO survey. The Bureau of the Census has conducted the 1982, 1987, and 1992 CBOs for the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Minority Business Development Agency, and the general public. For the 1992 CBO, there were three surveys, a sole proprietor survey, an owner survey for each owner in partnerships and S corporations, and a firm survey for each partnership and S corporation. For database purposes, the owner questions on the sole proprietors survey and owner survey were merged, and the firm questions on the sole proprietors survey and firm survey were merged. The owner database has 116,589 records, and the firm survey has 78,147 records. The CBO reports on owners about their background such as owner type (race, and ethnicity), age, education, work experience, veteran status, etc. The CBO reports on firms (with and without employees) about their economic details such as industry, financing, home-based, exporting, franchising, profits, etc. In addition, the CBO was conducted in 1996 on firms in existence in 1992 allowing for some survivability analysis. The CBO over samples women and minority owners to allow researchers to more reliably study these owners. This survey is an extension of the Survey of Minority-Owned Business Enterprises (SMOBE) and Survey of Women-Owned Businesses (WOB) within the economic census. The CBO is available as a report, special tabulations, or microdata for approved researchers.
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Business Success: Factors Leading to Surviving and Closing Successfully
January 2001
Working Paper Number:
CES-01-01
This paper focuses on the startup factors that lead to new firms remaining open, and if they close, the factors leading to whether the owner considered the firm successful at closure. Two independent logit models were developed for closure and success characteristics using the Bureau of the Census' Characteristics of Business Owners (CBO). Business Information Tracking Series (BITS, formerly the LEEM), also from the Bureau of the Census, was used to evaluate business survival rates as the CBO had non-response bias with respect to closure. About half of new employer firms survive at least four years (an estimated one-third of non-employer firms survive this period), and of the firms that closed, owners of about a third felt the firm was successful at closure. Major factors leading to remaining open are having ample capital, having employees, having a good education, and starting for personal reasons (freedom for family life, or wanting to become one's own boss). If the firm closed, major factors leading to owners perceiving the business successful at closure are having no start-up capital or ample capital, having previous ownership experience, and avoiding the retail trade industry. Owners of firms with and without employees had similar rates of believing closed businesses were successful at closure. Owners who were young or started without capital had a higher likelihood of closure but when they closed, they were more likely to consider the firm successful. Gender, race and being older play a small, if any, role in survivability or in owners' perception that the closed firm was successful. Retail trade was the only variable that led to businesses being more likely to close, and more likely to be deemed unsuccessful by the owner at closure.
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The Characteristics of Business Owners (CBO) Database
October 1989
Working Paper Number:
CES-89-09
The Bureau of the Census conducted the Characteristics of Business Owners (CBO) survey for the Small Business Administration and the Minority Business Development Agency in 1986. The CBO collected information from a national sample of 126,000 business owners, surveying the demographic and economic characteristics of owners and the economic performance of their firms. A major feature of the CBO is the large numbers of Hispanic, Asian and Other, Black and Women businesses, in addition to nonminority, male-owned businesses. The CBO data series also serves the broader purpose of providing data on characteristics of owners and firms in the small business population. This paper provides a report of the purpose, content, and basic procedures used for the survey and presents a preliminary discussion of the coverage and overall response.
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The Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs: An Update
January 2017
Working Paper Number:
CES-17-46
We provide an update on the Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs (ASE), which is a relatively new Census Bureau business survey. About 290,000 employer firms in the private, non-agricultural U.S. economy are in the ASE sample. Its content is relatively constant over collections, allowing for comparability over time; however, each year there are approximately ten new questions in a changing topical module. Earlier topical modules covered innovation (2014) and management practices (2015). The topical module for reference year 2016 covers business advice and planning, finance, and regulations. The ASE is collected through a partnership of the Census Bureau with the Kauffman Foundation and the Minority Business Development Agency. Qualified researchers on approved projects may request access to the ASE micro data through the Federal Statistical Research Data Center (FSRDC) network.
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The Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs: An Introduction
November 2015
Working Paper Number:
CES-15-40R
The Census Bureau continually seeks to improve its measures of the U.S. economy as part of its mission. In some cases this means expanding or updating the content of its existing surveys, expanding the use of administrative data, and/or exploring the use of privately collected data. When these options cannot provide the needed data, the Census Bureau may consider fielding a new survey to fill the gap. This paper describes one such new survey, the Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs (ASE). Innovations in content, format, and process are designed to provide high-quality, timely, frequent information on the activities of one of the important drivers of economic growth: entrepreneurship. The ASE is collected through a partnership of the Census Bureau with the Kauffman Foundation and the Minority Business Development Agency. The first wave of the ASE collection started in fall of 2015 (for reference period 2014) and results will be released in summer 2016. Qualified researchers on approved projects will be able to access micro data from the ASE through the Federal Statistical Research Data Center (FSRDC) network.
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Nonemployer Statistics by Demographics (NES-D): Using Administrative and Census Records Data in Business Statistics
January 2019
Working Paper Number:
CES-19-01
The quinquennial Survey of Business Owners or SBO provided the only comprehensive source of information in the United States on employer and nonemployer businesses by the sex, race, ethnicity and veteran status of the business owners. The annual Nonemployer Statistics series (NES) provides establishment counts and receipts for nonemployers but contains no demographic information on the business owners. With the transition of the employer component of the SBO to the Annual Business Survey, the Nonemployer Statistics by Demographics series or NES-D represents the continuation of demographics estimates for nonemployer businesses. NES-D will leverage existing administrative and census records to assign demographic characteristics to the universe of approximately 24 million nonemployer businesses (as of 2015). Demographic characteristics include key demographics measured by the SBO (sex, race, Hispanic origin and veteran status) as well as other demographics (age, place of birth and citizenship status) collected but not imputed by the SBO if missing. A spectrum of administrative and census data sources will provide the nonemployer universe and demographics information. Specifically, the nonemployer universe originates in the Business Register; the Census Numident will provide sex, age, place of birth and citizenship status; race and Hispanic origin information will be obtained from multiple years of the decennial census and the American Community Survey; and the Department of Veteran Affairs will provide administrative records data on veteran status.
The use of blended data in this manner will make possible the production of NES-D, an annual series that will become the only source of detailed and comprehensive statistics on the scope, nature and activities of U.S. businesses with no paid employment by the demographic characteristics of the business owner. Using the 2015 vintage of nonemployers, initial results indicate that demographic information is available for the overwhelming majority of the universe of nonemployers. For instance, information on sex, age, place of birth and citizenship status is available for over 95 percent of the 24 million nonemployers while race and Hispanic origin are available for about 90 percent of them. These results exclude owners of C-corporations, which represent only 2 percent of nonemployer firms. Among other things, future work will entail imputation of missing demographics information (including that of C-corporations), testing the longitudinal consistency of the estimates, and expanding the set of characteristics beyond the demographics mentioned above. Without added respondent burden and at lower imputation rates and costs, NES-D will meet the needs of stakeholders as well as the economy as a whole by providing reliable estimates at a higher frequency (annual vs. every 5 years) and with a more timely dissemination schedule than the SBO.
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Gender Differences in Business Performance: Evidence from the Characteristics of Business Owners Survey
December 2008
Working Paper Number:
CES-08-39
Using confidential microdata from the U.S. Census Bureau, we investigate the performance of female-owned businesses making comparisons to male-owned businesses. Using regression estimates and a decomposition technique, we explore the role that human capital, especially through prior work experience, and financial capital play in contributing to why female-owned businesses have lower survival rates, profits, employment and sales. We find that female-owned businesses are less successful than male-owned businesses because they have less startup capital, and business human capital acquired through prior work experience in a similar business and prior work experience in family business. We also find some evidence that femaleowned businesses work fewer hours and may have different preferences for the goals of their business.
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Past Experience and Future Success: New Evidence on Owner Characteristics and Firm Performance
September 2010
Working Paper Number:
CES-10-24
Because the ability of entrepreneurs to start their own businesses is key to the success of the U.S. economy and to the economic mobility of many disadvantaged demographic groups, understanding why entrepreneurship activity varies across groups and geography is an increasingly important issue. As a step in this direction we employ a novel set of metrics of business success to the growing literature and find great variation across groups and metrics. For example, we find that black-owned firms grow slower than white or Asian-owned firms. However, once we condition on firm survival, the differences disappear. Interestingly, we also find differences across groups in their start-up histories. For example, Asian-owned firms are less likely than white-owned firms to have started-out as nonemployers but firms owned by all other minority groups, as well as women-owned firms, are more likely to start-out without employees.
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Mergers and Acquisitions in the United States: 1990-1994
September 1998
Working Paper Number:
CES-98-15
Business merger and acquisition activity has been brisk in the United States in the recent past. Yet very little information has been available to help researchers understand the effects of this activity on jobs, businesses, and the American economy. This paper takes a first look at examining merger and acquisition activity using the newly available Longitudinal Establishment and Enterprise Microdata (LEEM) file. The analysis focuses on industries, establishments, and employment by employment size of firm. A first-time comparison of establishments that were acquired and survived over the 1990-1994 period with those that survived but were not acquired finds that the acquired establishments experienced more job change and, in the end, more net job loss than the nonacquired establishments. Establishments in small firms that were acquired by new or large firms experienced especially rapid job growth; however; job losses in establishments acquired from large firms more than offset these job gains.
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Determinants of Business Success: An Examination of Asian-Owned Businesses in the United States
December 2006
Working Paper Number:
CES-06-32
Using confidential and restricted-access microdata from the U.S. Census Bureau, we find that Asian-owned businesses are 16.9 percent less likely to close, 20.6 percent more likely to have profits of at least $10,000, and 27.2 percent more likely to hire employees than whiteowned businesses in the United States. Asian firms also have mean annual sales that are roughly 60 percent higher than the mean sales of white firms. Using regression estimates and a special non-linear decomposition technique, we explore the role that class resources, such as financial capital and human capital, play in contributing to the relative success of Asian businesses. We find that Asian-owned businesses are more successful than white-owned businesses for two main reasons . Asian owners have high levels of human capital and their businesses have substantial startup capital. Startup capital and education alone explain from 65 percent to the entire gap in business outcomes between Asians and whites. Using the detailed information on both the owner and the firm available in the CBO, we estimate the explanatory power of several additional factors.
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Access to Financial Capital Among U.S. Businesses: The Case of African-American Firms
December 2006
Working Paper Number:
CES-06-33
The differences between African-American business ownership rates and white business ownership rates are striking. Estimates from the 2000 Census indicate that 11.8 percent of white workers are self-employed business owners, compared with only 4.8 percent of black workers. Furthermore, black-white differences in business ownership rates have remained roughly constant over most of the twentieth century (Fairlie and Meyer 2000). In addition to lower rates of business ownership, black-owned businesses are less successful on average than are white or Asian firms. In particular, black-owned businesses have lower sales, hire fewer employees and have smaller payrolls than white- or Asian-owned businesses, on average (U.S. Census Bureau 2001, U.S. Small Business Administration 2001). Black firms also have lower profits and higher closure rates than white firms (U.S. Census Bureau 1997, U.S. Small Business Administration 1999). For most outcomes, the disparities are extremely large. For example, estimates from the 2002 Survey of Business Owners (SBO) indicate that white firms have average sales of $437,870 compared with only $74,018 for black firms.
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