Dynemp: A Routine for Distributed Microdata Analysis of Business Dynamics

Abstract

In this article, we introduce a new command, dynemp, that implements a distributed microdata analysis of business and employment dynamics and firm demographics. As its data source, dynemp requires business registers or comparable firm- or establishment-level longitudinal databases that cover the (near-)universe of companies in all business sectors. Access to such confidential data is usually restricted, and the microlevel 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 harmonization of the key economic concepts, dynemp can be distributed in a network of researchers who have access to the national confidential microdata. This way, the rich firm-level employment dynamics can be analyzed from new angles (such as firm age and size), significantly expanding the scope of analyses relying only on more aggregated data.