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Technology and the Size Distribution of Firms: Evidence from Dutch Manufacturing

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  • Orietta Marsili

Abstract

Empirical studies have shown that the size distribution of firms can be described as a Pareto distribution. However, these studies have focused on large firms and aggregate statistics. Little attention has been placed on the role of technology in shaping firm size distributions. Using a comprehensive dataset of manufacturing firms and the Community Innovation Survey from the Netherlands, the paper investigates the relationship between firm size and technology. It shows that technological factors shape the distribution of firm size, suggesting that the Pareto law is not an invariant property and that technology can constrain the “self-organising” character of industrial economies. Copyright Springer 2005

Suggested Citation

  • Orietta Marsili, 2005. "Technology and the Size Distribution of Firms: Evidence from Dutch Manufacturing," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 27(4), pages 303-328, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:revind:v:27:y:2005:i:4:p:303-328
    DOI: 10.1007/s11151-005-5053-z
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    1. Cohen, Wesley M. & Levin, Richard C., 1989. "Empirical studies of innovation and market structure," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 18, pages 1059-1107, Elsevier.
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    2. Vandermarliere, B. & Ryckebusch, J. & Schoors, K. & Cauwels, P. & Sornette, D., 2017. "Discrete hierarchy of sizes and performances in the exchange-traded fund universe," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 469(C), pages 111-123.
    3. Coad, Alex, 2010. "Investigating the exponential age distribution of firms," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 4, pages 1-30.
    4. Dosi Giovanni & Gambardella Alfonso & Grazzi Marco & Orsenigo Luigi, 2008. "Technological Revolutions and the Evolution of Industrial Structures: Assessing the Impact of New Technologies upon the Size and Boundaries of Firms," Capitalism and Society, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 1-49, June.
    5. Segarra, Agustí & Teruel, Mercedes, 2012. "An appraisal of firm size distribution: Does sample size matter?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 314-328.
    6. Alex Coad & Werner Hölzl, 2009. "On the Autocorrelation of Growth Rates," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 139-166, June.
    7. Giovanni Dosi & Marcelo C. Pereira & Maria Enrica Virgillito, 2017. "The footprint of evolutionary processes of learning and selection upon the statistical properties of industrial dynamics," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 26(2), pages 187-210.
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. Sandra M. Leitner & Robert Stehrer, 2011. "Shapes and determinants of returns to innovation," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(8), pages 777-795, December.
    11. 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.
    12. Stankov, Petar & Vasilev, Aleksandar, 2015. "What Explains the Diversity of Regulatory Reform Outcomes?," EconStor Research Reports 141915, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    13. Junho Na & Jeong-dong Lee & Chulwoo Baek, 2017. "Is the service sector different in size heterogeneity?," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 12(1), pages 95-120, April.
    14. Ramón Rufín & Cayetano Medina, 2008. "Market delimitation, firm survival and growth in service industries," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(9), pages 1401-1417, September.
    15. Yannick Malevergne & Pedro Santa-Clara & Didier Sornette, 2009. "Professor Zipf goes to Wall Street," NBER Working Papers 15295, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Y. Malevergne & D. Sornette, 2007. "A two-Factor Asset Pricing Model and the Fat Tail Distribution of Firm Sizes," Papers physics/0702027, arXiv.org.
    17. Rutzer, Christian, 2014. "A Theory of Trade Liberalization and Innovations with Heterogeneous Firms," Working papers 2014/02, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    18. Wang, Yuanjun & You, Shibing, 2016. "An alternative method for modeling the size distribution of top wealth," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 457(C), pages 443-453.
    19. Chen Ge & Shu-Guang Zhang & Bin Wang, 2020. "Modeling the joint distribution of firm size and firm age based on grouped data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(7), pages 1-19, July.
    20. Ricardo González-López & Javier B. Gómez & Amalio F. Pacheco, 2020. "A Minimal Agent-Based Model For The Size-Frequency Distribution Of Firms," Advances in Complex Systems (ACS), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(01), pages 1-27, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    firm size; Gibrat’s law; innovation; Pareto distribution; L11; L60; O33;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • L60 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - General
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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