Firm growth and stagnation in the United States: Key trends and new data opportunities

Deskripsi

Using administrative data from the US Census Bureau, we introduce a new public-use dataset (“Business Dynamics Statistics—High Growth” [BDS-HG]) that captures the full distribution of firm growth in the United States between 1978 and 2021. BDS-HG enables researchers to analyze not only high-growth firms but also stagnant and shrinking firms, disaggregated by firm maturity, size, industry, region, and year. We begin by documenting two key trends: (1) a significant decline in the share of high-growth firms—especially among young and small firms and (2) a marked rise in stagnant firms. To help illustrate the dataset's usefulness, we provide three empirical applications and highlight research opportunities across major areas of strategic management. In addition to supporting new analyses, BDS-HG can be used to benchmark research samples and assess their generalizability.