Small businesses and drive the economy?

Taxprofblog
points to research suggesting a tipping point about the notion that small businesses drive the economy:

Martin A. Sullivan (Tax Analysts), New Research Weakens Case for Small Business Tax Relief
The National Federation of Independent Business states on its website: “Small business has created about two of every three net new jobs in the United States since at least the early 1970s.” And on its website, the Small Business Administration claims, “Small firms accounted for 65 percent (or 9.8 million) of the 15 million net new jobs created between 1993 and 2009.” These claims are endlessly repeated on television and in print. And both political parties are perfectly happy to leave them unchallenged. But two new strands of academic research are quietly shredding the idea that policies to support small businesses hold the key to job creation.

  • [John Haltiwanger (University of Maryland, Department of Economics), Ron S. Jarmin (U.S. Census Bureau, Center for Economic Studies) & Javier Miranda (U.S. Census Bureau, Center for Economic Studies), Who Creates Jobs? Small vs. Large vs. Young
  • Erik Hurst & Benjamin Pugsley (both of the University of Chicago, Department of Economics), What Do Small Businesses Do?]