Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics, PSED I, United States, 1998-2004

The Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED) research program was designed to longitudinally examine the startup process with multi-year cohort tracking, so as to enhance the scientific understanding of how individuals start businesses. The project provided data on the process of business formation based on nationally-representative samples of nascent entrepreneurs, those active in business creation. PSED I began with screening in 1998-2000 to select a cohort of 830 with three follow-up interviews. The panel participants were identified prior to launch of their firms and were tracked through gestation, launch and eventual growth or death of the firm. A control group of those not involved in firm creation were available for comparisons. PSED II (available from ICPSR as study 37202) began with screening in 2005-2006, followed by six yearly interviews. The information obtained as part of the PSED research program included data on the nature of those active as nascent entrepreneurs, the activities undertaken during the start-up process, and the characteristics of start-up efforts that become new firms.
The PSED I data included as part of this collection includes:

Dataset 1: Screener Data (117 Variables, 64,622 Cases);
Dataset 2: Waves 1-4 Data by Questionnaire Sequence (5,015 Variables, 1,261 Cases);
Dataset 3: Waves 1-4 Data by Panel Sequence (5,223 Variables, 1,261 Cases);
Demographic variables included as part of this collection comprises age, race, ethnicity, gender, household income, educational attainment, employment status, marital status, citizenship, year of birth, household characteristics, and business characteristics.