IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/physics-0512124.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Re-examination of the size distribution of firms

Author

Listed:
  • Taisei Kaizoji
  • Hiroshi Iyetomi
  • Yuichi Ikeda

Abstract

In this paper we address the question of the size distribution of firms. To this aim, we use the Bloomberg database comprising multinational firms within the years 1995-2003, and analyze the data of the sales and the total assets of the separate financial statement of the Japanese and the US companies, and make a comparison of the size distributions between the Japanese companies and the US companies. We find that (i) the size distribution of the US firms is approximately log-normal, in agreement with Gibrat's observation (Gibrat 1931), and in contrast (ii) the size distribution of the Japanese firms is clearly not log-normal, and the upper tail of the size distribution follows the Pareto law. It agree with the predictions of the Simon model (Simon 1955). Key words: the size distribution of firms, the Gibrat's law, and the Pareto law

Suggested Citation

  • Taisei Kaizoji & Hiroshi Iyetomi & Yuichi Ikeda, 2005. "Re-examination of the size distribution of firms," Papers physics/0512124, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2006.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:physics/0512124
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/0512124
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ijiri, Yuji & Simon, Herbert A, 1974. "Interpretations of Departures from the Pareto Curve Firm-Size Distributions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(2), pages 315-331, Part I, M.
    2. Ijiri, Yuji & Simon, Herbert A, 1971. "Effects of Mergers and Acquisitions on Business Firm Concentration," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(2), pages 314-322, March-Apr.
    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. 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.
    2. Lina M Cortés & Juan M Lozada & Javier Perote, 2021. "Firm size and economic concentration: An analysis from a lognormal expansion," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(7), pages 1-21, July.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Stankov, Petar & Vasilev, Aleksandar, 2015. "What Explains the Diversity of Regulatory Reform Outcomes?," EconStor Research Reports 141915, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    6. Cortés, Lina M. & Mora-Valencia, Andrés & Perote, Javier, 2017. "Measuring firm size distribution with semi-nonparametric densities," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 485(C), pages 35-47.
    7. 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.
    8. Kitov, Ivan, 2009. "What is the best firm size to invest?," MPRA Paper 13721, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. 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.
    10. Lublóy, Ágnes & Szenes, Márk, 2007. "Az ügyfélelvándorlás kereskedelmi banki modellezése [Modelling the migration of commercial bank clients]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(10), pages 915-934.
    11. Stankov, Petar & Vasilev, Aleksandar, 2019. "Business reform outcomes: Why so different?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 1109-1127.

    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. Elena Cefis & Orietta Marsili & Hans Schenk, 2009. "The effects of mergers and acquisitions on the firm size distribution," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 1-20, February.
    2. Sandro Claudio Lera & Didier Sornette, 2017. "Quantification of the evolution of firm size distributions due to mergers and acquisitions," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(8), pages 1-16, August.
    3. Birkmaier, Daniel & Wohlrabe, Klaus, 2014. "The Matthew effect in economics reconsidered," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 880-889.
    4. Marcelo Resende, 2004. "Gibrat's Law and the Growth of Cities in Brazil: A Panel Data Investigation," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 41(8), pages 1537-1549, July.
    5. S .G. Winter & Y. M. Kaniovski, 2000. "Modeling Industrial Dynamics with Innovative Entrants," Chapters, in: Innovation, Organization and Economic Dynamics, chapter 16, pages 459-500, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Jordi McKenzie, 2010. "Movie producers and the statistical distribution of achievement," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(17), pages 1657-1661.
    7. Harabi, Najib, 2003. "Déterminants de la croissance des entreprises: Une analyse empirique du Maroc [Determinants of Firm Growth: An Empirical Analysis from Morocco]," MPRA Paper 4440, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Angel Sevil & Alfonso Cruz & Tomas Reyes & Roberto Vassolo, 2022. "When Being Large Is Not an Advantage: How Innovation Impacts the Sustainability of Firm Performance in Natural Resource Industries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-20, December.
    9. Alex Coad, 2007. "Firm Growth: a Survey," Post-Print halshs-00155762, HAL.
    10. Francesca Lotti & Enrico Santarelli, 2004. "Industry Dynamics and the Distribution of Firm Sizes: A Nonparametric Approach," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 70(3), pages 443-466, January.
    11. Harabi, Najib, 2005. "Determinants of Firm Growth: An Empirical Analysis from Morocco," MPRA Paper 4394, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Einar Erlingsson & Simone Alfarano & Marco Raberto & Hlynur Stefánsson, 2013. "On the distributional properties of size, profit and growth of Icelandic firms," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 8(1), pages 57-74, April.
    13. Cefis, Elena & Ciccarelli, Matteo & Orsenigo, Luigi, 2007. "Testing Gibrat's legacy: A Bayesian approach to study the growth of firms," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 348-369, September.
    14. Aili Tang, 2015. "Does Gibrat’s law hold for Swedish energy firms?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 49(2), pages 659-674, September.
    15. Emin Dinlersoz & Glenn MacDonald, 2009. "The Industry Life-Cycle of the Size Distribution of Firms," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 12(4), pages 648-667, October.
    16. Tol, Richard S.J., 2013. "The Matthew effect for cohorts of economists," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 522-527.
    17. Christian Cordes & Tong-Yaa Su & Pontus Strimling, 2019. "A critical human group size and firm size distributions in industries," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 123-144, July.
    18. Quan-Hoang Vuong & Tran Tri Dung & Thi Chau Ha NguyenN, 2009. "Mergers and Acquisitions in Vietnam’s Emerging Market Economy, 1990-2009," Working Papers CEB 09-045.RS, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    19. Elena Cefis & Matteo Ciccarelli & Luigi Orsenigo, 2002. "From Gibrat’s legacy to Gibrat’s fallacy. A Bayesian approach to study the growth of firms," Working Papers (-2012) 0206, University of Bergamo, Department of Economics.
    20. Richard S.J. Tol, 2009. "The Matthew effect defined and tested for the 100 most prolific economists," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 60(2), pages 420-426, February.

    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:arx:papers:physics/0512124. 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: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    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.