Data and Code for: What Do Survey Data Tell Us about US Businesses?

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Anmol Bhandari, University of Minnesota; Serdar Birinci, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; Ellen R. McGrattan, University of Minnesota; Kurt See, Bank of Canada

Version: View help for Version V4

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FigureA.1.dep	text/plain	49 bytes	03/03/2020 04:30:AM
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FigureA.1.log	text/x-log	52.8 KB	03/03/2020 04:30:AM
FigureA.1.md5	text/plain	62 bytes	03/03/2020 04:30:AM
FigureA.1.pdf	application/pdf	68.9 KB	03/03/2020 04:30:AM
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FigureA.10.log	text/x-log	64.1 KB	03/03/2020 04:30:AM
FigureA.10.md5	text/plain	62 bytes	03/03/2020 04:30:AM
FigureA.10.pdf	application/pdf	60.4 KB	03/03/2020 04:30:AM

Project Description

Summary: This paper examines the reliability of survey data on business incomes, valuations, and rates of return, which are key inputs for studies of wealth inequality and entrepreneurial choice. We compare survey responses of business owners with available data from administrative tax records, brokered private business sales, and publicly traded company filings and document problems due to nonrepresentative samples and measurement errors across several surveys, subsamples, and years. We find that the discrepancies are economically relevant for the statistics of interest. We investigate reasons for these discrepancies and propose corrections for future survey designs.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: Survey data; business incomes; valuations; intangibles; taxes

JEL Classification:
      C83 Survey Methods; Sampling Methods
      E22 Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity
      H25 Business Taxes and Subsidies including sales and value-added (VAT)

Geographic Coverage: United States

Universe: All US businesses

Data Type(s): administrative records data; survey data

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