Who Creates Jobs? Small vs. Large vs. Young

49 Pages Posted: 28 Aug 2010

See all articles by John Haltiwanger

John Haltiwanger

University of Maryland - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Ron S. Jarmin

U.S. Census Bureau

Javier Miranda

US Census Bureau — Economy-Wide Statistics Division

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: August 1, 2010

Abstract

There’s been a long, sometimes heated, debate on the role of firm size in employment growth. Despite skepticism in the academic community, the notion that growth is negatively related to firm size remains appealing to policymakers and small business advocates. The widespread and repeated claim from this community is that most new jobs are created by small businesses. Using data from the Census Bureau Business Dynamics Statistics and Longitudinal Business Database, we explore the many issues regarding the role of firm size and growth that have been at the core of this ongoing debate (such as the role of regression to the mean). We find that the relationship between firm size and employment growth is sensitive to these issues. However, our main finding is that once we control for firm age there is no systematic relationship between firm size and growth. Our findings highlight the important role of business startups and young businesses in U.S. job creation. Business startups contribute substantially to both gross and net job creation. In addition, we find an “up or out” dynamic of young firms. These findings imply that it is critical to control for and understand the role of firm age in explaining U.S. job creation.

Suggested Citation

Haltiwanger, John C. and Jarmin, Ron S. and Miranda, Javier, Who Creates Jobs? Small vs. Large vs. Young (August 1, 2010). US Census Bureau Center for Economic Studies Paper No. CES-WP- 10-17, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1666157 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1666157

John C. Haltiwanger

University of Maryland - Department of Economics ( email )

College Park, MD 20742
United States
301-405-3504 (Phone)
301-405-3542 (Fax)

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) ( email )

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
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Germany

Ron S. Jarmin

U.S. Census Bureau ( email )

4700 Silver Hill Road
Washington, DC 20233
United States

Javier Miranda (Contact Author)

US Census Bureau — Economy-Wide Statistics Division ( email )

Washington, DC
United States

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