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The Post-entry Size Adjustment of New small Firms

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  • Francesca Lotti
  • Enrico Santarelli
  • Marco Vivarelli

Abstract

The hypothesis underlined in this paper is that apart from infant mortality there is another relevant phenomenon taking place within new-born Small Business Enterprises (SBEs) in the period immediately after entry; namely that the smaller ones among them, having entered with a marked sub-optimal scale,adjust their size towards the mean size exhibited by larger SBEs. In the paper this hypothesis is tested using a cohort of 1,570 new firms, and applying a Gibrat-like specification with sample selection. The hypothesis of a size adjustment by smaller new entrants immediately after entry is confirmed in most selected industries in Italian manufacturing; more specifically, surviving smaller new SBEs show higher rates of growth in the first year (in one case in the first two) immediately after start-up, while they converge towards the average rate of growth of the whole cohort of new SBEs in the following years.

Suggested Citation

  • Francesca Lotti & Enrico Santarelli & Marco Vivarelli, 2002. "The Post-entry Size Adjustment of New small Firms," LEM Papers Series 2002/08, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    • Handle: RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2002/08
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    References listed on IDEAS

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