Changes

After the 2008 financial crisis, firm deaths had significantly exceeded firm births as calculated by the US census bureau. This phenomenon had gradually reversed itself in 2011, but has continued to miss the net average of 120,000 firm births experienced during the late 90's and early 2000's. Researchers speculate that fulfillment of a quarter of the entrepreneurial plans of the two million students’ pursuits would have been enough to return the 120,000 firm birth surplus.The study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania is the first to explore the relationship between student debt and small business growth. Analysis from the models created in the study claim that an increase of one standard deviation in student debt, reduces small business formation for businesses with 1-4 employees by as much as 14%.