Abstract
Researchers conducting economic base, targeted industry, business survival, or new business start-up research must be able to enumerate all firms in local economies. Dun and Bradstreet market identifier files (and their derivative public use database, U.S. Enterprise and Establishment Microdata file), state unemployment insurance administrative files (ES202), and direct enumeration(e.g. telephone Yellow Pages, etc) are becoming more widely used for enumeration, but little is known about their comparative representativeness. Using rural Iowa as a case study, the three databases were compared. Results showed that each database was biased in its own way and therefore not strictly comparable to the others. The study concluded that the databases would need to be supplemented if high levels of accuracy are required.
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