Stylized Facts and Other Empirical Evidence on Firm Dynamics, Business Cycle and Growth

In this paper, we bring together in a systematised fashion the scattered empirical evidence relating firm dynamics and both short-run and long-run macroeconomic dynamics. There are numerous studies that focus on firm-level data while controlling for macroeconomic conditions, which cover a considerable range of variables, industries and countries. From these studies it has emerged what is by now a rather robust set of empirical regularities, or stylized facts, about entry, exit, growth and the size distribution of firms. On the contrary, the literature that focus explicitly on the interplay between firm dynamics and the business cycle is roughly confined to the US experience and to the cyclical properties of firm entry and exit, whereas systematic studies about the relationship between firm dynamics and economic growth are almost non-existent whatsoever.