Data and code for: The Life Cycle of Businesses and Their Internal Organization

We document new stylized facts on the occupational mix of businesses in the U.S. and on how their internal organization evolves over their life cycles. Our main empirical finding is that younger businesses have fewer hierarchical layers and span of control than comparable older businesses. Our results suggest that businesses become more hierarchical and increase their managerial span of control over their life cycles. We show that this pattern is not entirely driven by selection or differences in size and is pervasive across cohorts and sectors.