Research

Business ownership is diverse, but women, African Americans, and Hispanics tend to own more non-employer firms and less employer firms. Additionally, younger owners tend to own non-employer firms. With the Census Bureau’s new data series,…

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…

In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States, causing illness, death, and widespread economic devastation. A new issue brief from the Office of Advocacy, “The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Small Businesses,”…

To support Advocacy’s mission of examining the role and contributions of small businesses, the Office of Economic Research spent FY 2019 providing timely and relevant research products, analyzing proposed regulations for small business…

Lending to businesses in counties where a bank has no branches is highly sensitive to economic conditions. During the 2007 recession, distant lending contracted far more sharply than local lending, leaving the share of loans made at a…

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)…

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted businesses that typically require more person to person contact.  Recovery rates and changes in the operating capacity of small businesses since the start of the pandemic have also…

The Office of Advocacy’s Small Business Economic Bulletin for December examines how small businesses have been faring during the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall self-employment levels have been relatively steady, but income changes from small…

When using traditional measurements, small business exports represent about one third of total U.S. export value. However, these measures fail to take into account the value small businesses add to exports sold by large businesses. Using a…

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted metropolitan areas, which have seen a higher rate of small business closures than non-metropolitan areas. However, in recent weeks, the New York City metropolitan area has reopened…