DynEmp: A Stata® Routine for Distributed Micro-data Analysis of Business Dynamics

Abstract

This paper introduces a new Stata® command, dynemp, which implements a distributed micro-data analysis of business and employment dynamics and firm demographics. The data source it requires are business registers or comparable firm- or establishment- level longitudinal databases which cover the (near-) universe of companies in all business sectors. Access to such confidential data is usually restricted and the micro-level data cannot be brought together to a single platform for cross-country analysis. To solve this confidentiality problem while also maintaining a high level of harmonisation of the key economic concepts (gross job flows, growth rates of employment, definition of high-growth firms, etc.), dynemp can be distributed in a network of researchers who have access to the national confidential microdata. In such manner, the rich firm-level employment dynamics can be analysed from new angles (such as firm age and size), significantly expanding the scope of the analysis insofar possible using more aggregated data.