IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/phsmap/v508y2018icp501-505.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Scale-free distribution of firm-size distribution in emerging economies

Author

Listed:
  • Lyócsa, Štefan
  • Výrost, Tomáš

Abstract

We test firm-size distributions in 10 emerging economies in Europe, using data on total assets of 1 884 006 firms. On the economy level, power-law firm size distribution is plausible for 8 countries with scaling parameter α≈2. At the industry level, power-law firm size distribution is not rejected for 53% of all cases. However, an alternative log-normal distribution that might follow from Gibrat’s law also appears to be likely as at the economy level it was not ruled out for 9 countries and 74% of industry-level cases.

Suggested Citation

  • Lyócsa, Štefan & Výrost, Tomáš, 2018. "Scale-free distribution of firm-size distribution in emerging economies," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 508(C), pages 501-505.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:508:y:2018:i:c:p:501-505
    DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2018.05.088
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378437118306381
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only. Journal offers the option of making the article available online on Science direct for a fee of $3,000
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.physa.2018.05.088?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Luis Garicano & Claire Lelarge & John Van Reenen, 2016. "Firm Size Distortions and the Productivity Distribution: Evidence from France," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(11), pages 3439-3479, November.
    2. Xavier Gabaix, 2016. "Power Laws in Economics: An Introduction," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 30(1), pages 185-206, Winter.
    3. Yi Chen & Frank A. Cowell, 2017. "Mobility in China," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63(2), pages 203-218, June.
    4. Zhang, Jianhua & Chen, Qinghua & Wang, Yougui, 2009. "Zipf distribution in top Chinese firms and an economic explanation," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 388(10), pages 2020-2024.
    5. Erzo G. J. Luttmer, 2007. "Selection, Growth, and the Size Distribution of Firms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(3), pages 1103-1144.
    6. Atushi Ishikawa & Shouji Fujimoto & Takayuki Mizuno & Tsutomu Watanabe, 2014. "Analytical Derivation of Power Laws in Firm Size Variables from Gibrat’s Law and Quasi-inversion Symmetry: A Geomorphological Approach," UTokyo Price Project Working Paper Series 019, University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Economics.
    7. Bee, Marco & Riccaboni, Massimo & Schiavo, Stefano, 2017. "Where Gibrat meets Zipf: Scale and scope of French firms," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 481(C), pages 265-275.
    8. Gaffeo, Edoardo & Gallegati, Mauro & Palestrini, Antonio, 2003. "On the size distribution of firms: additional evidence from the G7 countries," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 324(1), pages 117-123.
    9. Fujiwara, Yoshi & Di Guilmi, Corrado & Aoyama, Hideaki & Gallegati, Mauro & Souma, Wataru, 2004. "Do Pareto–Zipf and Gibrat laws hold true? An analysis with European firms," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 335(1), pages 197-216.
    10. Guo, Jinzhong & Xu, Qi & Chen, Qinghua & Wang, Yougui, 2013. "Firm size distribution and mobility of the top 500 firms in China, the United States and the world," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 392(13), pages 2903-2914.
    11. Xavier Gabaix, 2009. "Power Laws in Economics and Finance," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 255-294, May.
    12. Gillespie, Colin S., 2015. "Fitting Heavy Tailed Distributions: The poweRlaw Package," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 64(i02).
    13. Kang, Sang Hoon & Jiang, Zhuhua & Cheong, Chongcheul & Yoon, Seong-Min, 2011. "Changes of firm size distribution: The case of Korea," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 390(2), pages 319-327.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Faustino Prieto & José María Sarabia & Enrique Calderín-Ojeda, 2021. "The nonlinear distribution of employment across municipalities," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 16(2), pages 287-307, April.
    2. Michal Brzozowski, 2019. "Access to Credit and Growth of Firms," Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (Finance a uver), Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, vol. 69(3), pages 253-274, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Montebruno, Piero & Bennett, Robert J. & van Lieshout, Carry & Smith, Harry, 2019. "A tale of two tails: Do Power Law and Lognormal models fit firm-size distributions in the mid-Victorian era?," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 523(C), pages 858-875.
    2. Gao, Baojun & Chan, Wai Kin (Victor) & Li, Hongyi, 2015. "On the increasing inequality in size distribution of China's listed companies," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 25-41.
    3. Jan Schulz & Daniel M. Mayerhoffer, 2021. "Equal chances, unequal outcomes? Network-based evolutionary learning and the industrial dynamics of superstar firms," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 91(9), pages 1357-1385, November.
    4. Ji, Guseon & Dai, Bingcun & Park, Sung-Pil & Ahn, Kwangwon, 2020. "The origin of collective phenomena in firm sizes," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    5. Petra Štamfestová & Lukáš Sobíšek & Jiří Hnilica, 2023. "Firm Size Distribution in the Central European Context," Central European Business Review, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2023(5), pages 151-175.
    6. Qigang Yuan & Yanping Zhao & Hui Shang & Wei Zhang & Zaghum Umar, 2016. "Financing constraints on the size distribution of industrial firms: the Chinese experience," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(41), pages 3899-3911, September.
    7. Chen, Zhimin & Ibragimov, Rustam, 2019. "One country, two systems? The heavy-tailedness of Chinese A- and H- share markets," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 115-141.
    8. Kiyoyasu Tanaka & Naomi Hatsukano, 2011. "The size distribution of all Cambodian establishments," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 31(3), pages 2128-2137.
    9. Heinrich, Torsten, 2016. "The Narrow and the Broad Approach to Evolutionary Modeling in Economics," MPRA Paper 75797, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Jakub Growiec & Fabio Pammolli & Massimo Riccaboni, 2020. "Innovation and Corporate Dynamics: A Theoretical Framework," Central European Journal of Economic Modelling and Econometrics, Central European Journal of Economic Modelling and Econometrics, vol. 12(1), pages 1-45, March.
    11. Kang, Sang Hoon & Jiang, Zhuhua & Cheong, Chongcheul & Yoon, Seong-Min, 2011. "Changes of firm size distribution: The case of Korea," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 390(2), pages 319-327.
    12. Soriano-Hernández, P. & del Castillo-Mussot, M. & Campirán-Chávez, I. & Montemayor-Aldrete, J.A., 2017. "Wealth of the world’s richest publicly traded companies per industry and per employee: Gamma, Log-normal and Pareto power-law as universal distributions?," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 471(C), pages 733-749.
    13. Cerqueti, Roy & Lupi, Claudio & Pietrovito, Filomena & Pozzolo, Alberto Franco, 2022. "Rank–size distributions for banks: A cross-country analysis," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 585(C).
    14. Xavier Gabaix, 2011. "The Granular Origins of Aggregate Fluctuations," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 79(3), pages 733-772, May.
    15. Da-Rocha, José-María & Restuccia, Diego & Tavares, Marina M., 2023. "Policy distortions and aggregate productivity with endogenous establishment-level productivity," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    16. Atushi Ishikawa & Shouji Fujimoto & Takayuki Mizuno & Tsutomu Watanabe, 2017. "Dependence of the decay rate of firm activities on firm age," Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 351-362, December.
    17. Lina Cortés & Juan M. Lozada & Javier Perote, 2019. "Firm size and concentration inequality: A flexible extension of Gibrat’s law," Documentos de Trabajo de Valor Público 17205, Universidad EAFIT.
    18. Andrew T. Balthrop, 2021. "Gibrat’s law in the trucking industry," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(1), pages 339-354, July.
    19. Heinrich, Torsten & Dai, Shuanping, 2016. "Diversity of firm sizes, complexity, and industry structure in the Chinese economy," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 90-106.
    20. Bee, Marco & Riccaboni, Massimo & Schiavo, Stefano, 2017. "Where Gibrat meets Zipf: Scale and scope of French firms," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 481(C), pages 265-275.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:508:y:2018:i:c:p:501-505. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/physica-a-statistical-mechpplications/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.