Business Failures by Industry in the United States, 1895 to 1940: A Statistical History (ICPSR 34016)
Version Date: Jul 5, 2012 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Gary Richardson, University of California-Irvine, and National Bureau of Economic Research;
Michael Gou, University of California-Irvine
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR34016.v1
Version V1
Summary View help for Summary
Dun's Review began publishing monthly data on business failures by branch of business during the 1890s. At that time, a business failure was defined as a concern which was involved in a court proceeding or voluntary action which was likely to end in loss to creditors. Liabilities of failed businesses were defined "as all liabilities except long-term publicly-held obligations, chiefly bonds." Dun's published data on failures by branch of business from 1895 through 1935. This dataset reconstructs that series and links it to its successors. The successor series include data on business failures by division of industry, which Dun and Bradstreet's published from 1934 through 1940. This study includes six parts. Part One contains aggregate liabilities in dollars, broken down by branch, month, and year. Part Two contains aggregate numbers of business failures broken down by branch, month, and year. Part Three contains aggregate liability in dollars broken down by division, month, and year. Part Four contains aggregate numbers of business failures broken down by division, month, and year. Part Five contains aggregate liabilities broken down by sector, month, and year. Part Six contains aggregate numbers of business failures broken down by sector, month, and year. Part One and Part Two contain 36 variables and 562 cases. Part Three and Part Four contain 51 variables and 60 cases. Part Five and Part Six contain 6 variables and 562 cases.
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Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
Smallest Geographic Unit View help for Smallest Geographic Unit
United States
Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)
Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)
Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
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For additional information on these datasets please see the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Web site.
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The dates in the Original P.I. Documentation for Business Failures by Industry in the United States range from 1895 to 1939, however, the data range from 1895 to 1940. The title for ICPSR 34016 has been changed to reflect the data.
Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
This study allows for economic analysis of business failures. It is intended to provide a resource on business failure and liabilites from 1895 to 1940.
Study Design View help for Study Design
Data originally collected from court filings at municipal, county, state, and United States district court houses throughout the United States from 1895 through 1940. Data published periodically by R. G. Dun and Company, Bradstreet's Company, and their successors through 1940. From their publications, the principal investigators collected, cleaned, compiled, and computerized the current data series.
Sample View help for Sample
The data consist of the aggregate number of corporations filing for bankruptcy in various industries each month in the United States and the total liabilities of those corporations. Please refer to the codebook for sampling information in the "Original P.I. Documentation" section. Additional information can be found by visiting the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Web site.
Time Method View help for Time Method
Universe View help for Universe
Businesses that failed in the United States from 1895 through 1940.
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables
Variables include monthly, unadjusted, liabilities and monthly, unadjusted, number of failures for different branches, sectors, divisons.
HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2012-07-05
Version History View help for Version History
- Richardson, Gary, and Michael Gou. Business Failures by Industry in the United States, 1895 to 1940: A Statistical History. ICPSR34016-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2012-07-05. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR34016.v1
2012-07-05 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
Notes
These data are freely available to data users at ICPSR member institutions. The curation and dissemination of this study are provided by the institutional members of ICPSR. How do I access ICPSR data if I am not at a member institution?