Research & Data

Evidence, in the open — for anyone working to close the gap.

We publish research and datasets on small-business access to capital. Our data is freely available for researchers, journalists, lenders, and public agencies.

Initial research agenda

03 THEMES
  • Research theme
    Forthcoming

    Measuring the capital mobility gap

    A framework for measuring the distance between capital-ready small businesses and available capital, and the design principles behind the Capital Mobility Index.

  • Research theme
    Forthcoming

    What small-business lending data shows

    A re-examination of approval and denial patterns across regulated lenders, with implications for policy and program design.

  • Research theme
    Forthcoming

    CDFI reach by geography and sector

    An open dataset and short note on where community lenders are and aren't reaching capital-ready firms.

Open data

Free for researchers.

Our datasets are released under permissive licenses with clear documentation, versioning, and replication code. Researchers, civic technologists, and journalists may use the data without cost or gatekeeping. We ask only for citation.

Dataset catalog
Illustrative
Dataset · FormatAccess
  • Small-business loan approvals, MSA-level
    v0.1 · sample
    CSVDownload
  • CDFI reach by census tract
    v0.1 · sample
    CSVDownload
  • Capital Mobility Index — rankings
    v0.1 · sample
    APIDownload
Illustrative preview using sample data. First edition publishes Q1 2027.

Fellows program

Researchers in residence.

The Center hosts a small cohort of research fellows — academics, practitioners, and civic technologists — working on focused questions about small-business capital access. Fellows publish under their own names, with independent editorial control.

Applications open ahead of the first edition of the Index.

Get new publications by email.