The Hartford has partnered with UCLA Anderson Forecast in an effort to more thoroughly research a persistent decline in new business formation across states and industries.
The Hartford-based insurer announced the partnership mid-week at the 2016 September Quarterly Forecast Conference hosted by UCLA Anderson School of Management in Los Angeles.
Produced twice a year, The Hartford/UCLA Anderson Forecast Small Business Project will draw on The Hartford’s data, national surveys of small business owners, and analysis by UCLA Anderson Forecast economists. Research will explore employment, the impact of technology, demographics, risk attitudes, and regulation of small businesses.
The goal for The Hartford is to better fathom the role it can play “in advocating for small business owners and continuing to meet their evolving needs,” said Stephanie Bush, the insurer’s executive vice president, small commercial insurance.
Alfred E. Osborne, Jr., senior associate dean, professor and faculty director at the Harold and Pauline Price Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at UCLA Anderson, said the collaboration will further his organization’s study of entrepreneurship and “the determinants of small business success.”
