Working paper – Small-Business Financing after the Financial Crisis: Lessons from the Literature, Stephen Matteo Miller, Adam J. Hoffer, David Wille. Aug 23, 2016. “Small businesses feature prominently in the US economy because they employ about 50 percent of the workforce and pay about 50 percent of American wages. Also, small businesses are often a source of innovative ideas that can drive growth. To the extent that access to finance plays a role in bringing those ideas to the real economy, small-business finance remains important for the future of the economy. Yet new financial regulations arising from the Dodd-Frank Act that were intended to stabilize the banking industry after the 2008 financial crisis may be unintentionally limiting small businesses’ access to credit. In a new study from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, researchers Stephen Matteo Miller, Adam Hoffer, and David Wille provide a review of the latest academic research into the major sources of capital used by small businesses in the United States and summarize the major trends and challenges that small-business owners face in obtaining capital today.”