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Where Do Manufacturing Firms Locate Their Headquarters?
October 2005
Working Paper Number:
CES-05-17
Firms' headquarters [HQ] support their production activity, by gathering information and outsourcing business services, as well as, managing, evaluating, and coordinating internal firm activities. In search of locations for these functions, firms often separate the HQ function physically from their production facilities and construct stand-alone HQs. By locating its HQ in a large, service oriented metro area away from its production facilities, a firm may be better able to out-source service functions in that local metro market and also to gather information about market conditions for their products. However if the firm locates the HQ away from its production activity, that increases the coordination costs in managing plant activities. In this paper we empirically analyze the trade-off of these two considerations.
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Estimating the Hidden Costs of Environmental Regulation
May 2002
Working Paper Number:
CES-02-10
This paper examines whether accounting systems identify all the costs of environmental regulation. We estimate the relation between the 'visible' cost of regulatory compliance, i.e., costs that are correctly classified in firms' accounting systems, and 'hidden' costs i.e., costs that are embedded in other accounts. We use plant-level data from 55 steel mills to estimate hidden costs, and we follow up with structured interviews of corporate-level managers and plant-level accountants. Empirical results show that a $1 increase in the visible cost of environmental regulation is associated with an increase in total cost (at the margin) of $10-11, of which $9-10 are hidden in other accounts. The findings suggest that inappropriate identification and accumulation of the costs of environmental compliance are likely to lead to distorted costs in firms subject to environmental regulation.
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Diversification Discount or Premium? New Evidence from BITS Establishment-Level Data
December 2001
Working Paper Number:
CES-01-13
This paper examines whether the finding of a diversification discount in U.S. stock markets is only a data artifact. Segment data may give rise to biased estimates of the value effect of diversification because segments are defined inconsistently across firms, and that inconsistency does not occur at random. I use a new establishment-level database that covers the whole U.S. economy (BITS) to construct business units that are more consistently and objectively defined across firms, and thus more comparable. Using a common methodological approach on a sample of firms which exhibit a diversification discount according to segment data, I find that, when BITS data are used, diversified firms actually trade at a significant average premium. The premium is robust to variations in the method, sample, business unit definition, and measures of excess value and diversification used.
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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 Database, 1992
May 1999
Working Paper Number:
CES-99-08
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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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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Longitudinal Establishment And Enterprise Microdata (LEEM) Documentation
May 1998
Working Paper Number:
CES-98-09
This paper introduces and documents the new Longitudinal Enterprise and Establishment Microdata (LEEM) database, which has been constructed by Census' Economic Planning and Coordination Division under contract to the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration. The LEEM links three years (1990, 1994, and 1995) of basic data for each private sector establishment with payroll in any of those years, along with data on the firm to which the establishment belongs each year. The LEEM data will facilitate both broader and more detailed analysis of patterns of job creation and destruction in the U.S., as well as research on the structure and dynamics of U.S. businesses. This paper provides documentation of the construction of LEEM data, summary data on most variables in the database, comparisons of the annual data with that of the nearly identical County Business Patterns, and distributions of establishments and their employment by the size of their firms. This is followed by a simple analysis of changes over time in the attributes of surviving establishments, and a brief discussion of turnover (business births and deaths) in the population and gross changes in employment associated with both establishment turnover and with surviving establishments. It concludes with a summary of the strengths and weaknesses of the LEEM.
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Survival Patterns Among Newcomers To Franchising
May 1997
Working Paper Number:
CES-97-05
This study analyzes survival patterns among franchisee firms adn establishments that began operations in 1986 and 1987. Differing methodologies and data bases are utilized to demonstrate that 1) franchises have higher survival rates than independents, and 2) franchises have lower survival rates than independent business formations. Analyses of corporate establishment data generate high franchisee survival rates relative to independents, while analyses of young firm data generate the opposite pattern. In either case, the franchise trait is one of several determinants of survival prospects. The larger-scale, more established firms consistently stay in operation more frequently than smaller-scale, younger firms. Analysis of all corporate establishment restaurant units opened in 1986 or 1987 that use paid employees in 1987 helps to reconcile the seeming inconsistencies reported above. Most of the young franchisee units were not owned by young firms: rather, their parents were multi-establishment franchisees, and most of them were mature firms. Among the true newcomers, franchise survival rates are low; among the entrenched multi-establishment franchisees, survival rates were high.
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Survival Patterns Among Newcomers to Franchising
January 1997
Working Paper Number:
CES-97-01
This study analyzes survival patterns among franchisee firms and establishments that began operations in 1986 and 1987. Differing methodologies and data bases are utilized to demonstrate that 1) franchises have higher survival rates than independents, and 2) franchises have lower survival rates than independent business formations. Analyses of corporate establishment data generate high franchisee survival rates relative to independents, while analyses of young firm data generate the opposite pattern. In either case, the franchise trait is one of several determinants of survival prospects. The larger-scale, more established firms consistently stay in operation more frequently than smaller-scale, younger firms. Analysis of all corporate establishment restaurant units opened in 1986 or 1987 that use paid employees in 1987 helps to reconcile the seeming inconsistencies reported above. Most of the young franchisee units were not owned by young firms: rather, their parents were multi-establishment franchisees, and most of them were mature firms. Among the true newcomers, franchise survival rates are low; among the entrenched multi-establishment franchisees, survival rates were high.
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Innovation and Regulation in the Pesticide Industry
December 1995
Working Paper Number:
CES-95-14
This paper examines the hypothesis that regulation negatively affects pesticide innovation, causes pesticide companies to introduce more harmful pesticides, and discourages firms from developing pesticides for minor crop markets. The results confirm that pesticide regulation adversely affects innovation and discourages firms from developing pesticides for minor crop markets. Contrary to the hypothesis, however, regulation encourages firms to develop less toxic pesticides. Estimates suggest that it requires about $29 million in industry expenditures on health and environmental testing to affect the toxicity of one new pesticide.
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