IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-00670760.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Firm growth and productivity growth: evidence from a panel VAR

Author

Listed:
  • Alex Coad

    (Evolutionary Economics Group [Jena] - Max Planck Institute of Economics - Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Tom Broekel

    (Department of Economic Geography - Universiteit Utrecht / Utrecht University [Utrecht])

Abstract

This paper offers new insights into the processes of firm growth by applying a reduced-form vector autoregression (VAR) model to longitudinal panel data on French manufacturing firms. We observe the co-evolution of key variables such as growth of employment, sales, and gross operating surplus, as well as growth of multifactor productivity. It seems that employment growth is negatively associated with subsequent growth of productivity. This latter result, however, is sensitive to our choice of productivity indicator, i.e. multifactor productivity or labour productivity.

Suggested Citation

  • Alex Coad & Tom Broekel, 2011. "Firm growth and productivity growth: evidence from a panel VAR," Post-Print hal-00670760, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00670760
    DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2010.539542
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-00670760
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal.science/hal-00670760/document
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00036846.2010.539542?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
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alex Coad & Tom Broekel, 2012. "Firm growth and productivity growth: evidence from a panel VAR," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(10), pages 1251-1269, April.
    2. Giulio Bottazzi & Alex Coad & Nadia Jacoby & Angelo Secchi, 2011. "Corporate growth and industrial dynamics: evidence from French manufacturing," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(1), pages 103-116.
    3. Alex Coad, 2009. "The Growth of Firms," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13424.
    4. Jose Zofio, 2007. "Malmquist productivity index decompositions: a unifying framework," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(18), pages 2371-2387.
    5. Alex Coad, 2007. "Firm Growth: a Survey," Post-Print halshs-00155762, HAL.
    6. Adelina Gschwandtner, 2005. "Profit persistence in the 'very' long run: evidence from survivors and exiters," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(7), pages 793-806.
    7. Richard Disney & Jonathan Haskel & Ylva Heden, 2003. "Restructuring and productivity growth in uk manufacturing," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(489), pages 666-694, July.
    8. John Goddard & David McMillan & John Wilson, 2006. "Do firm sizes and profit rates converge? Evidence on Gibrat's Law and the persistence of profits in the long run," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(3), pages 267-278.
    9. Metcalfe, J S, 1994. "Competition, Fisher's Principle and Increasing Returns in the Selection Process," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 4(4), pages 327-346, November.
    10. Coad, Alex, 2007. "Testing the principle of `growth of the fitter': The relationship between profits and firm growth," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 370-386, September.
    11. G. M.P. Swann, 2009. "The Economics of Innovation," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13211.
    12. Armen A. Alchian, 1950. "Uncertainty, Evolution, and Economic Theory," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 58(3), pages 211-211.
    13. Cinzia Daraio & Léopold Simar, 2005. "Introducing Environmental Variables in Nonparametric Frontier Models: a Probabilistic Approach," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 93-121, September.
    14. Pavitt, Keith, 1984. "Sectoral patterns of technical change: Towards a taxonomy and a theory," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 13(6), pages 343-373, December.
    15. Mark Doms & Eric J. Bartelsman, 2000. "Understanding Productivity: Lessons from Longitudinal Microdata," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(3), pages 569-594, September.
    16. Malerba,Franco & Brusoni,Stefano (ed.), 2007. "Perspectives on Innovation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521685610, October.
    17. Brown, Charles & Medoff, James, 1989. "The Employer Size-Wage Effect," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(5), pages 1027-1059, October.
    18. Baily, Martin Neil & Bartelsman, Eric J & Haltiwanger, John, 1996. "Downsizing and Productivity Growth: Myth or Reality?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 8(4), pages 259-278, August.
    19. Alex Coad, 2007. "A Closer Look at Serial Growth Rate Correlation," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 31(1), pages 69-82, August.
    20. Lucia Foster & John C. Haltiwanger & C. J. Krizan, 2001. "Aggregate Productivity Growth: Lessons from Microeconomic Evidence," NBER Chapters, in: New Developments in Productivity Analysis, pages 303-372, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Simar, Leopold & Wilson, Paul W., 2007. "Estimation and inference in two-stage, semi-parametric models of production processes," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 31-64, January.
    22. Russell W. Cooper & John C. Haltiwanger, 2006. "On the Nature of Capital Adjustment Costs," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 73(3), pages 611-633.
    23. Delmar, Frederic & Davidsson, Per & Gartner, William B., 2003. "Arriving at the high-growth firm," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 189-216, March.
    24. Cinzia Daraio & Léopold Simar, 2007. "Conditional nonparametric frontier models for convex and nonconvex technologies: a unifying approach," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 13-32, October.
    25. Laura Power, 1998. "The Missing Link: Technology, Investment, And Productivity," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 80(2), pages 300-313, May.
    26. Franco Malerba, 2007. "Innovation and the evolution of industries," Springer Books, in: Uwe Cantner & Franco Malerba (ed.), Innovation, Industrial Dynamics and Structural Transformation, pages 7-27, Springer.
    27. Alex Coad, 2008. "Firm growth and scaling of growth rate variance in multiplant firms," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 12(9), pages 1-15.
    28. Caves, Douglas W & Christensen, Laurits R & Diewert, W Erwin, 1982. "The Economic Theory of Index Numbers and the Measurement of Input, Output, and Productivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(6), pages 1393-1414, November.
    29. Giulio Bottazzi & Elena Cefis & Giovanni Dosi, 2002. "Corporate growth and industrial structures: some evidence from the Italian manufacturing industry," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 11(4), pages 705-723, August.
    30. Mark E. Doms & Timothy Dunne, 1998. "Capital Adjustment Patterns in Manufacturing Plants," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 1(2), pages 409-429, April.
    31. Malerba,Franco & Brusoni,Stefano (ed.), 2007. "Perspectives on Innovation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521866644, October.
    32. David C. Wheelock & Paul W. Wilson, 2003. "Robust nonparametric estimation of efficiency and technical change in U.S. commercial banking," Working Papers 2003-037, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    33. Roger Koenker & Kevin F. Hallock, 2001. "Quantile Regression," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 143-156, Fall.
    34. Adelina Gschwandtner, 2005. "Profit persistence in the 'very' long run: evidence from survivors and exiters," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(7), pages 793-806.
    35. Joao Pedro Azevedo, 2004. "GRQREG: Stata module to graph the coefficients of a quantile regression," Statistical Software Components S437001, Boston College Department of Economics, revised 17 Mar 2011.
    36. James H. Stock & Mark W. Watson, 2001. "Vector Autoregressions," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 101-115, Fall.
    37. J. O. S. Wilson & J. M. Williams, 2000. "The size and growth of banks: evidence from four European countries," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(9), pages 1101-1109.
    38. repec:bla:econom:v:44:y:1977:i:176:p:369-80 is not listed on IDEAS
    39. Cazals, Catherine & Florens, Jean-Pierre & Simar, Leopold, 2002. "Nonparametric frontier estimation: a robust approach," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 106(1), pages 1-25, January.
    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. Medina-Durango, Carlos Alberto & Posso Suárez, Christian Manuel & Tamayo, Jorge A. & Monsalve, Emma, 2012. "Dinámica de la demanda laboral en la industria manufacturera colombiana 1993-2009 : una estimación panel VAR," Chapters, in: Arango-Thomas, Luis Eduardo & Hamann-Salcedo, Franz Alonso (ed.), El mercado de trabajo en Colombia : hechos, tendencias e instituciones, chapter 7, pages 289-330, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    2. Rabinovich, Joel, 2023. "Tangible and intangible investments and sales growth of US firms," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 200-212.
    3. Giulio Bottazzi & Giovanni Dosi & Nadia Jacoby & Angelo Secchi & Federico Tamagni, 2010. "Corporate performances and market selection: some comparative evidence," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 19(6), pages 1953-1996, December.
    4. Alex Coad & Tom Broekel, 2012. "Firm growth and productivity growth: evidence from a panel VAR," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(10), pages 1251-1269, April.
    5. Giovanni Dosi & Emanuele Pugliese & Pietro Santoleri, 2017. "Growth and survival of the `fitter'? Evidence from US new-born firms," LEM Papers Series 2017/06, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    6. Juan Federico & Joan-Lluis Capelleras, 2015. "The heterogeneous dynamics between growth and profits: the case of young firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 231-253, February.
    7. Joel Rabinovich, 2022. "The evolving contribution of R&D, advertising and capital expenditures for US-listed firms’ growth in sales, 1979-2018. A quantile regression analysis," Working Papers hal-03539656, HAL.
    8. Ho-Chang Chae, 2024. "In search of gazelles: machine learning prediction for Korean high-growth firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 62(1), pages 243-284, January.
    9. Thomas Brenner & Marco Capasso & Matthias Duschl & Koen Frenken & Tania Treibich, 2018. "Causal relations between knowledge-intensive business services and regional employment growth," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(2), pages 172-183, February.
    10. Rui Yang & Xin An & Yingwen Chen & Xiuli Yang, 2023. "The Knowledge Analysis of Panel Vector Autoregression: A Systematic Review," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    11. Sven-Olov Daunfeldt & Niklas Elert & Dan Johansson, 2014. "The Economic Contribution of High-Growth Firms: Do Policy Implications Depend on the Choice of Growth Indicator?," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 337-365, September.
    12. Márta Bisztray & Francesca de Nicola & Balázs Muraközy, 2023. "High-growth firms’ contribution to aggregate productivity growth," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 60(2), pages 771-811, February.
    13. Blankenberg, Ann-Kathrin & Buenstorf, Guido, 2016. "Regional co-evolution of firm population, innovation and public research? Evidence from the West German laser industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 857-868.
    14. Nadine Levratto & Aziza Garsaa & Luc Tessier, 2013. "La Corse est-elle soluble dans le modèle méditerranéen ?," Working Papers hal-00842059, HAL.
    15. Broekel, Tom & Schimke, Antje & Brenner, Thomas, 2011. "The effects of cooperative R&D subsidies and subsidized cooperation on employment growth," Working Paper Series in Economics 34, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Department of Economics and Management.
    16. Balázs Lengyel & Rikard H. Eriksson, 2017. "Co-worker networks, labour mobility and productivity growth in regions," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 17(3), pages 635-660.
    17. Tom Broekel & Antje Schimke & Thomas Brenner, 2011. "The effects of cooperative R and D subsidies and subsidized cooperation on employment growth," Working Papers on Innovation and Space 2011-04, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    18. MUSTAFA, Murtala Oladimeji Abioye & STELLA, Uwazuluonye Audu, 2023. "The Nexus between Human Capital Investment and Firm Growth of Selected Non-Financial Firms in Nigeria," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 7(8), pages 467-481, August.
    19. Nadine Levratto & Aziza Garsaa & Luc Tessier, 2013. "La Corse est-elle soluble dans le modèle méditerranéen ? Une analyse à partir d’une régression quantile sur données d’entreprises en panel entre 2004 et 2010. Is the Corsican economy a part of the Med," EconomiX Working Papers 2013-20, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    20. Abubakr Saeed & Yacine Belghitar & Ephraim Clark, 2017. "Political connections and firm operational efficiencies: evidence from a developing country," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 191-224, January.
    21. Jurij Weinblat, 2018. "Forecasting European high-growth Firms - A Random Forest Approach," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 253-294, September.
    22. Lashitew, Addisu A., 2017. "The Uneven Effect of Financial Constraints: Size, Public Ownership, and Firm Investment in Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 178-198.
    23. Cristina Guillamón & Enrique Moral-Benito & Sergio Puente, 2017. "High growth firms in employment and productivity: dynamic interactions and the role of financial constraints?," Working Papers 1718, Banco de España.
    24. Coad, Alexander & Bauer, Péter & Domnick, Clemens & Harasztosie, Péter & Pál, Rozália & Teruel, Mercedes, 2023. "Which European firms were hardest hit by COVID-19?," EIB Working Papers 2023/05, European Investment Bank (EIB).
    25. Martin Binder & Alex Coad, 2009. "An Examination of the Dynamics of Happiness Using Vector Autoregressions," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2009-04, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.

    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. Alex Coad, 2007. "Exploring the "mechanics" of firm growth: evidence from a short-panel VAR," Post-Print halshs-00175048, HAL.
    2. Dosi, Giovanni & Nelson, Richard R., 2010. "Technical Change and Industrial Dynamics as Evolutionary Processes," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 51-127, Elsevier.
    3. Coad, Alex & Rao, Rekha & Tamagni, Federico, 2011. "Growth processes of Italian manufacturing firms," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 54-70, February.
    4. Sven-Olov Daunfeldt & Niklas Elert & Dan Johansson, 2014. "The Economic Contribution of High-Growth Firms: Do Policy Implications Depend on the Choice of Growth Indicator?," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 337-365, September.
    5. Alex Coad & Werner Hölzl, 2012. "Firm Growth: Empirical Analysis," Chapters, in: Michael Dietrich & Jackie Krafft (ed.), Handbook on the Economics and Theory of the Firm, chapter 24, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Alexander Coad, 2007. "Disentangling the firm growth process: evidence from a recursive panel VAR," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2007-15, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    7. Giovanni Dosi & Sébastien Lechevalier & Angelo Secchi, 2010. "Interfirm heterogeneity: nature, sources and consequences for industrial dynamics. An introduction," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-00642680, HAL.
    8. Uwe Cantner, 2017. "Foundations of Economic Change: An Extended Schumpeterian Approach," Economic Complexity and Evolution, in: Andreas Pyka & Uwe Cantner (ed.), Foundations of Economic Change, pages 9-49, Springer.
    9. Daria Ciriaci & Pietro Moncada-Paternò-Castello & Peter Voigt, 2016. "Innovation and job creation: a sustainable relation?," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 6(2), pages 189-213, August.
    10. Yu, Xiaodan & Dosi, Giovanni & Grazzi, Marco & Lei, Jiasu, 2017. "Inside the virtuous circle between productivity, profitability, investment and corporate growth: An anatomy of Chinese industrialization," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(5), pages 1020-1038.
    11. Jacob Holm, 2014. "The significance of structural transformation to productivity growth," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 24(5), pages 1009-1036, November.
    12. Coad, Alex, 2007. "Testing the principle of `growth of the fitter': The relationship between profits and firm growth," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 370-386, September.
    13. Werner Hölzl, 2015. "Sunk costs and the speed of market selection," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 323-344, April.
    14. Alex Coad, 2007. "Firm Growth: a Survey," Post-Print halshs-00155762, HAL.
    15. Nanditha Mathew, 2017. "Drivers of firm growth: micro-evidence from Indian manufacturing," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 585-611, July.
    16. Giovanni Dosi & Emanuele Pugliese & Pietro Santoleri, 2017. "Growth and survival of the `fitter'? Evidence from US new-born firms," LEM Papers Series 2017/06, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    17. Giovanni Dosi & Marco Grazzi & Luigi Marengo & Simona Settepanella, 2016. "Production Theory: Accounting for Firm Heterogeneity and Technical Change," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(4), pages 875-907, December.
    18. Daniele Moschella & Federico Tamagni & Xiaodan Yu, 2019. "Persistent high-growth firms in China’s manufacturing," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 573-594, March.
    19. Alex Coad & Rekha Rao, 2010. "Firm growth and R&D expenditure," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 127-145.
    20. Arata, Yoshiyuki, 2019. "Firm growth and Laplace distribution: The importance of large jumps," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 63-82.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Social Sciences & Humanities;

    JEL classification:

    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • L20 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:hal:journl:hal-00670760. 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: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.