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Documenting the Business Register and Related Economic Business Data

Author

Listed:
  • Bethany DeSalvo
  • Frank F. Limehouse
  • Shawn D. Klimek

Abstract

The Business Register (BR) is a comprehensive database of business establishments in the United States and provides resources for the U.S. Census Bureau’s economic programs for sample selection, research, and survey operations. It is maintained using information from several federal agencies including the Census Bureau, Internal Revenue Service, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Social Security Administration. This paper provides a detailed description of the sources and functions of the BR. An overview of the BR as a linking tool and bridge to other Census Bureau data for additional business characteristics is also given.

Suggested Citation

  • Bethany DeSalvo & Frank F. Limehouse & Shawn D. Klimek, 2016. "Documenting the Business Register and Related Economic Business Data," Working Papers 16-17, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    • Handle: RePEc:cen:wpaper:16-17
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    File URL: https://www2.census.gov/ces/wp/2016/CES-WP-16-17.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Fariha Kamal & Jessica McCloskey & Wei Ouyang, 2022. "Multinational Firms in the U.S. Economy: Insights from Newly Integrated Microdata," BEA Working Papers 0202, Bureau of Economic Analysis.
    2. Adela Luque & Vitaliy Novik, 2024. "Garage Entrepreneurs or just Self-Employed? An Investigation into Nonemployer Entrepreneurship," Working Papers 24-61, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    3. Joseph Staudt & Yifang Wei & Lisa Singh & Shawn Klimek & J. Bradford Jensen & Andrew Baer, 2019. "Automating Response Evaluation for Franchising Questions on the 2017 Economic Census," NBER Chapters, in: Big Data for Twenty-First-Century Economic Statistics, pages 209-227, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Leland D. Crane & Ryan A. Decker, 2019. "Business Dynamics in the National Establishment Time Series (NETS)/Leland Crane, Ryan Decker," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2019-034, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    5. Laura Alfaro & Paola Conconi & Fariha Kamal & Zachary Kroff, 2026. "Trade Within Multinational Boundaries," CESifo Working Paper Series 12394, CESifo.
    6. Basker, Emek & Kamal, Fariha, 2021. "Recall and response: Relationship adjustments to adverse information shocks," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    7. Laura Alfaro & Paola Conconi & Fariha Kamal & Zachary Kroff, 2026. "Trade within multinational boundaries," CEP Discussion Papers dp2153, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    8. C.J. Krizan, 2019. "Statistics on the Small Business Administration’s Scale-Up America Program," Working Papers 19-11, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    9. Fariha Kamal & Wei Ouyang, 2020. "Identifying U.S. Merchandise Traders: Integrating Customs Transactions with Business Administrative Data," Working Papers 20-28, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    10. Ryan A. Decker & Meagan McCollum & Gregory B. Upton Jr., 2024. "Boom Town Business Dynamics," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 59(2), pages 627-651.
    11. Keith Barnatchez & Leland D. Crane & Ryan A. Decker, 2017. "An Assessment of the National Establishment Time Series (NETS) Database," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2017-110, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    12. Melissa C. Chow & Teresa C. Fort & Christopher Goetz & Nathan Goldschlag & James Lawrence & Elisabeth Ruth Perlman & Martha Stinson & T. Kirk White, 2021. "Redesigning the Longitudinal Business Database," NBER Working Papers 28839, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. J. Daniel Kim & Kristin McCue, 2020. "Matching State Business Registration Records to Census Business Data," Working Papers 20-03, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    14. Randall Akee & Elton Mykerezi & Richard M. Todd, 2017. "Reservation Employer Establishments: Data from the U.S. Census Longitudinal Business Database," Working Papers 17-57, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    15. Fariha Kamal & Asha Sundaram & Cristina J. Tello-Trillo, 2020. "Family-Leave Mandates and Female Labor at U.S. Firms: Evidence from a Trade Shock," Working Papers 20-25, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    16. John M. Abowd & Ian M. Schmutte & Lars Vilhuber, 2018. "Disclosure Limitation and Confidentiality Protection in Linked Data," Working Papers 18-07, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    17. Yuheng Ding & Karam Jo & Seula Kim, 2022. "Improving Patent Assignee-Firm Bridge with Web Search Results," Working Papers 22-31, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    18. J. Daniel Kim & Kristin McCue, 2020. "Matching State Business Registration Records to Census Business Data," Working Papers 20-3, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    19. Kirill Borusyak & Xavier Jaravel, 2018. "The Distributional Effects of Trade: Theory and Evidence from the United States," 2018 Meeting Papers 284, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    20. Laura Alfaro & Paula Conconi & Fariha FK Kamal & Zachary ZK Kroll, 2026. "Trade Within Multinational Boundaries," Working Papers ECARES 2025-01, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.

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