IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/iuiwop/0683.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The European Size Distribution of Firms and Employment

Author

Listed:
  • Stenkula, Mikael

    (Research Institute of Industrial Economics)

Abstract

The policy debate in recent years has increasingly focused on issues concerning size distribution of firms and employment. It is often claimed that we are approaching a new economic era where large enterprises have lost their importance in developed economies. This raises the question of what we can say about the size distributions on the basis of currently available European data. How important are large enterprises and can we detect any changes with regard to their importance? How do countries of the European Union differ in this regard? How reliable is available data ? does it permit us to draw any conclusions? Examining the availability and quality of data on European firm size and employment, we find that the existing data is severely limited in a number of respects. Conclusions based on the currently available data must hence be interpreted with considerable caution. However, recent measures by for instance the European Union will greatly improve the availability and quality of firm size data in the future.

Suggested Citation

  • Stenkula, Mikael, 2006. "The European Size Distribution of Firms and Employment," Working Paper Series 683, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0683
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ifn.se/Wfiles/wp/wp683.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Davis, Steven J & Henrekson, Magnus, 1999. "Explaining National Differences in the Size and Industry Distribution of Employment," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 59-83, February.
    2. Henrekson, Magnus & Johansson, Dan, 1999. "Institutional Effects on the Evolution of the Size Distribution of Firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 11-23, February.
    3. Zoltan J. Acs & David B. Audretsch, 2008. "Innovation in Large and Small Firms: An Empirical Analysis," Chapters, in: Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy, chapter 1, pages 3-15, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. William J. Baumol, 2004. "Entrepreneurial Enterprises, Large Established Firms and Other Components of the Free-Market Growth Machine," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 9-21, August.
    5. Davis, Steven J & Haltiwanger, John & Schuh, Scott, 1996. "Small Business and Job Creation: Dissecting the Myth and Reassessing the Facts," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 8(4), pages 297-315, August.
    6. Acs,Zoltan J. & Audretsch,David B. (ed.), 1993. "Small Firms and Entrepreneurship," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521431156, September.
    7. Zoltan Acs & David Audretsch, 1990. "Innovation and Small Firms," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262011131, April.
    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. Werner Hölzl & Susanne Bärenthaler-Sieber & Julia Bock-Schappelwein & Klaus Friesenbichler & Agnes Kügler & Andreas Reinstaller & Peter Reschenhofer & Bernhard Dachs & Martin Risak, 2019. "Digitalisation in Austria. State of Play and Reform Needs," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 61892, March.
    2. Manoj Thomas & Daniela Costa & Tiago Oliveira, 2016. "Assessing the role of IT-enabled process virtualization on green IT adoption," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 693-710, August.

    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. David B. Audretsch & Martin A. Carree & Adriaan J. Van Stel & A. Roy Thurik, 2002. "Impeded Industrial Restructuring: The Growth Penalty," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 81-98.
    2. Zoltán J. Ács & Pontus Braunerhjelm & David B. Audretsch & Bo Carlsson, 2015. "The knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship," Chapters, in: Global Entrepreneurship, Institutions and Incentives, chapter 7, pages 129-144, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Braunerhjelm, Pontus, 2010. "Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Economic Growth - past experience, current knowledge and policy implications," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 224, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    4. Doh, Soogwan & Kim, Byungkyu, 2014. "Government support for SME innovations in the regional industries: The case of government financial support program in South Korea," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(9), pages 1557-1569.
    5. David B. Audretsch & Mark Sanders, 2007. "Globalization and the Rise of the Entrepreneurial Economy," Jena Economics Research Papers 2007-003, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    6. Magnus Henrekson, 2014. "Entrepreneurship, innovation, and human flourishing," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 511-528, October.
    7. Martin Carree & André van Stel & Roy Thurik & Sander Wennekers, 2000. "Business Ownership and Economic Growth in 23 OECD Countries," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 00-001/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    8. Bergner, Sören Martin & Bräutigam, Rainer & Evers, Maria Theresia & Spengel, Christoph, 2017. "The use of SME tax incentives in the European Union," ZEW Discussion Papers 17-006, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    9. Braunerhjelm, Pontus & Ding, Ding & Thulin, Per, 2017. "The Knowledge Spillover Theory of Intrapreneurship, Labour Mobility and Innovation by Firm Size," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 459, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    10. David B. Audretsch & Max Keilbach, 2006. "Entrepreneurship, Growth and Restructuring," Papers on Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy 2006-13, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy Group.
    11. Anne Marie Knott & Carl Vieregger, 2020. "Reconciling the Firm Size and Innovation Puzzle," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(2), pages 477-488, March.
    12. Pontus Braunerhjelm & Ding Ding & Per Thulin, 2018. "The knowledge spillover theory of intrapreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 1-30, June.
    13. Hodgkinson, Ann & McPhee, Paul, 2002. "SME Information Sourcing for Innovation and Export Market Development: From Local or External Networks?," Economics Working Papers wp02-08, School of Economics, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
    14. Davis, Steven J. & Henrekson, Magnus, 1997. "Explaining National Differences in the Size and Industrial Distribution of Employment," Working Paper Series 482, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    15. Zoltan J. Acs & David B. Audretsch, 2005. "Entrepreneurship and Innovation," Papers on Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy 2005-21, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy Group.
    16. Charlie Karlsson & Börje Johansson & Roger R. Stough, 2010. "Introduction," Chapters, in: Charlie Karlsson & Börje Johansson & Roger R. Stough (ed.), Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, chapter 1, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. Karlsson, Charlie & Johansson, Börje & Stough, Roger, 2009. "Entrepreneurship and Development - local processes and global patterns," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 160, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    18. Albert N. Link & John T. Scott, 2013. "Employment growth from public support of innovation in small firms," Chapters, in: Public Support of Innovation in Entrepreneurial Firms, chapter 3, pages 41-64, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    19. Andrea Vaona & Mario Pianta, 2008. "Firm Size and Innovation in European Manufacturing," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 283-299, March.
    20. Baldwin, John R. Jarmin , Ron S. Tang, Jianmin, 2002. "L'importance accrue des producteurs plus petits dans le secteur de la fabrication : comparaison Canada-États-Unis," Série de documents de recherche sur l'analyse économique (AE) 2002003f, Statistics Canada, Direction des études analytiques.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Business Structure; Industrial Structure; Size Distribution; Small and Medium Sized Enterprises;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • O52 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Europe

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:hhs:iuiwop:0683. 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: Elisabeth Gustafsson (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iuiiise.html .

    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.