US Census Firm Concentration Data, 1972-2012 (ICPSR 37961)

Version Date: Aug 26, 2021

Cite this study |

Principal Investigator(s):
Sharat Ganapati, Georgetown University

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37961.v1

Version V1

Slide tabs to view more

Alternate Title

Economic Census

Summary

Since the passing of the 1953 Title 13 U.S. Code, Congress gave the Census Bureau authority to conduct an economic census every 5 years on years that end in a 2 or 7. This code mandated that all economic firms must provide requested information, and it required the Bureau to maintain the confidentiality of the individual records. Respondents are asked to provide a range of operational and performance data for their companies.

This collection is compiled from publicly available U.S. Census Bureau data and publications. This data comes from a mix of digitized paper documents, CD-ROMs/Floppy discs, now-discontinued FTP servers, and the US Census Bureau website. However, this data is not a complete sample of the US economic census. This collection has variables related to the type of establishment, year, business sector, payroll, number of employees, number of firms, and shipments. Some inquiries apply to some industries but not others, such as materials consumed and franchising

Citation

Ganapati, Sharat. US Census Firm Concentration Data, 1972-2012. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2021-08-26. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37961.v1

Export Citation:

  • RIS (generic format for RefWorks, EndNote, etc.)
  • EndNote

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

United States

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
Hide

Time Period(s)

1972 -- 2012

Date of Collection

1972 -- 2012

Data Collection Notes

  1. This data is organized by different industry classification systems over the years. Prior to 1997, the US Census used the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) classification. In 1997 and after, the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) classification system was used.

Hide

Study Purpose

The purpose of this collection is to monitor American economic activities. The economic census provides the framework for measures for the gross domestic product (GDP), price indexes, industries, input and output measures, a how they relate to each other. Businesses use Census data to make decisions about where to locate, how much to produce, and to compare their performance to other businesses in their industry or community. Local communities use Economic Census results to attract new businesses, assess the economic health of their localities, understand the characteristics of their business base, and compare their community to other geographical areas. Individuals can use census results to identify emerging job markets and growing industries.

Sample

The Census Bureau enumerated these companies using administrative records from other federal agencies, primarily the Internal Revenue Service, with additional information from the Social Security Administration and Bureau of Labor Statistics. Forms go out to nearly 4 million businesses, including large, medium, and small companies representing all U.S. locations and industries.

Time Method

Longitudinal

Universe

All formal United States firms in the years of 1972-2012.

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Hide

Original Release Date

2021-08-26

Version History

2021-08-26 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:

  • Performed consistency checks.

Hide

Weight

N/A

Hide

Notes