This section lists the major data sources used by researchers in the papers referenced above. This list is non-exhaustive but should nonetheless provide an excellent starting point for interested researchers.
- Current Population Survey: used for the Kauffman Foundation “Early-stage Entrepreneurship” reports. From Fairlie and Desai’s summary of the index: The CPS is a monthly survey of approximately 60,000 households and is the official source used to calculate the household-based measure of the unemployment rate by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. These surveys, conducted monthly by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, represent the entire U.S. population, and contain observations for over 130,000 people each month. The survey primarily asks questions focused on the employment status of household members, including whether they are unemployed, out of labor force, wage/salary worker, or a business owner (page 3).
- Venture capital databases: coverage of startups, financings, investors, and outcomes
- These include Pitchbook, CB Insights (VentureSource), Crunchbase, Preqin and Thompson VentureXpert.
- Form D data: regulatory filings with the SEC for securities registration exemption requests. Includes startups that raise outside equity and convertible debt and has information about directors, executives, startup location, capital raised and security type.
- https://www.sec.gov/dera/data/form-d See Ewens and Malenko (2022) Internet Appendix for details on Regulation D compliance and issues with Form D availability.
- Small Business Credit Survey (link): survey of small business credit conditions run by the 12 regional Federal Reserve banks.55 The survey has been run since 2014, with additions for race and gender variables in the last few years.