The authors investigate the empirical link between prevailing levels of crime and the viability of small businesses. Using confidential microdata from the U.S. Census Bureau's Characteristics of Business Owners Survey, they find, on balance, that young firms operating in high-crime niches in...

Although minority and immigrant entrepreneurs in the US have chosen to concentrate in low-profit retail and service lines of business clustered geographically in urban minority neighbourhoods, their reasons for doing so are unclear. We investigate their motivations by analysing viability among...

Limited access to financing restricts the ability of minority business enterprises (MBEs) to achieve viability, to generate new jobs, and, generally, to reach their full potential to contribute to the economic development of the communities and regions in which they operate. Although MBEs rely...

High prevailing levels of criminal activity have numerous impacts on the viability of urban small businesses and the various impacts are not uniformly negative. It is the negative impacts, however, that are most often noted. Either the perception or reality of rampant crime can scare away...

This study empirically investigates Michael Porter’s hypothesis that urban minority neighborhoods offer attractive opportunities to household-oriented businesses, such as retail firms (1995). Our analysis compares the traits and performance of firms serving predominantly minority clients to...

This briefing explores startup financing trends and how access and cost of capital impact profitability. To do so, we use data from the Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs (ASE). The ASE, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, is the largest annual survey of American entrepreneurs ever done, and exists...