Economic Studies

The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented issues to American entrepreneurs, and it’s important that we understand how small businesses respond to economic shock. This report examines the small business job market before and after…

New research from Advocacy indicates that the COVID-19 pandemic led to greater earnings losses for business owners of color than white business owners. Black business owners suffered the largest losses. Both Latinx and Asian business…

Advocacy’s small business lending report examines FDIC data to determine the state of bank lending to small businesses. This report, which analyzes loan data from June 2019 to June 2020, examines the small business lending market at the…

African Americans are underrepresented among self-employed workers. When African Americans own firms, they are less likely to have employees, operate with less financing, and are more likely to become discouraged enough to forego applying…

Historically, veterans have been more entrepreneurial than non-veterans. However, millennial veterans participate in entrepreneurship at a lower rate than millennial non-veterans.  Important demographic differences exist between …

Since 1980, the number of commercial banks has dropped from 14,400 to 4,600. Given the decrease in commercial banking options, it is important to understand the long-term trends of banking industry dynamics by size of bank, as well as the…

The Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan program had significant impacts on the small business lending market. The value of outstanding loans of less than $1 million (considered to be small business loans)…

Advocacy’s small business lending report examines FDIC data to determine the state of bank lending to small businesses. Between June 2017 and June 2019, small business lending remained positive, though below the increase in lending to…

The diversity of small businesses across the United States means their funding needs differ from place to place. Access to bank credit is important for all small businesses, whether located in rural or urban areas. Using FDIC data, this…

When starting businesses, women tend toward industries related to domestic service and men lean toward construction and repair-related industries. This has had implications for the size and growth of their individual businesses. On…