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What Happened to U.S. Business Dynamism?, Accessible Data
Figure 1. Entry Rates and Markups
Panel A shows the entry rate of firms and establishments in the United States, which are based on authors' calculations using publicly available data from the Business Dynamics Statistics database.
Panel B shows the average markup across publicly traded firms in the United States. Estimates provided by from De Loecker and Eeckhout (2017). The figures show the decline in firm and establishment enry rates in the United States along with an increase in the average markup of large publicly traded firms since 1980s, suggesting a rise in the market power of large firms as business dynamism declines.
Figure 2. Registry of Patents
Panel A shows the share of patent applications registered by top 1 percent of firms with the largest patent stocks in total applications made. It shows the notable increase in the share of patent applications registered by top 1 percent of firms with the largest patent stocks in total applications made since the late 1980s.
Panel B shows the share of applications registered by entrant firms, i.e., firms that patent for the first time. It shows the decline in the share of applications registered by entrant firms. The figures indicate a concentration of the patenting and likely innovative activity in firms that own already the largest patent stock. Based on authors' calculations from U.S. Patent and Trademark Office data.
Figure 3. Reassignment of Patents
Panel A shows the share of patents reassigned to top 1 percent of firms with the largest patent stocks among all reassigned patents. It shows a dramatic increase in the share of patents reassigned to the top 1 percent of firms with the largest patent stocks among all reassigned patents since the 1980s.
Panel B shows the likelihood of a patent to be assigned to a small firm, conditional on that patent being transacted from another small firm and recorded. It shows the steady decline in the share of patent reassignments registered to small buyers over the same time period. These figures indicate that patents are accumulated in the firms that own the largest patent stocks also via reassignments of patents. Based on authors' calculations from U.S. Patent and Trademark Office data.