Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/35692 
Year of Publication: 
2008
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 3888
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We use a new database, the National Establishment Time Series (NETS), to revisit the debate about the role of small businesses in job creation. Birch (e.g., 1987) argued that small firms are the most important source of job creation in the U.S. economy. But Davis et al. (1996a) argued that this conclusion was flawed, and based on improved methods and using data for the manufacturing sector, they concluded that there was no relationship between establishment size and net job creation. Using the NETS data, we examine evidence for the overall economy, as well as for different sectors. The results indicate that small firms and small establishments create more jobs, on net, although the difference is much smaller than what is suggested by Birch's methods. Moreover, in the recent period we study, a negative relationship between establishment size and job creation holds for both the manufacturing and services sectors.
Subjects: 
Job creation
job destruction
small businesses
JEL: 
J20
L25
L53
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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