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Persistence, Survival and Growth: A Closer Look at 20 Years of High-Growth Firms in Austria

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  • Werner Hölzl

Abstract

The paper studies the persistence of the high-growth phenomenon in Austria using social security data for the years 1985 to 2007. The Eurostat-OECD definition is used to identify high-growth firms and a modified Birch Index to identify high-impact firms. Bringing the definitions to the data confirms that the two definitions lead to the selection of different firms. We use matching as non-parametric preprocessing and estimate survival, persistence and growth regression on balanced datasets. The results show that being a high-growth firm does not improve the likelihood of survival in future periods in excess of the size effect induced by the high-growth event. For persistence and high growth we find a high-growth firm treatment effect. For high-impact firms we find a significant treatment effect for survival, persistence and growth. High-impact firms show a much higher persistence than high-growth firms. The average growth rate after the high-growth episode is quite modest for both high-impact and high-growth firms. Policy implications of the findings are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Werner Hölzl, 2011. "Persistence, Survival and Growth: A Closer Look at 20 Years of High-Growth Firms in Austria," WIFO Working Papers 403, WIFO.
    • Handle: RePEc:wfo:wpaper:y:2011:i:403
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    Cited by:

    1. Tomislav Galac, 2015. "Microeconomic Aspects of the Impact of the Global Crisis on the Growth of Non-financial Corporations in the Republic of Croatia," Working Papers 44, The Croatian National Bank, Croatia.
    2. Williams, Michael A. & Pinto, Brijesh P. & Park, David, 2015. "Global evidence on the distribution of firm growth rates," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 432(C), pages 102-107.
    3. Halvarsson, Daniel, 2013. "Identifying High-Growth Firms," Ratio Working Papers 215, The Ratio Institute.
    4. Rauf Gönenç & Oliver Röhn & Christian Beer & Andreas Wörgötter, 2013. "Responding to Key Well-being Challenges in Austria," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1080, OECD Publishing.
    5. Anders Bornhäll & Sven-Olov Daunfeldt & Niklas Rudholm, 2013. "Sleeping Gazelles: High profits but no growth," SPRU Working Paper Series 2013-10, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    6. Hölzl, Werner & Janger, Jürgen, 2013. "Does the analysis of innovation barriers perceived by high growth firms provide information on innovation policy priorities?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 80(8), pages 1450-1468.

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    firm growth; high growth firms;

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