IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wfo/wpaper/y2012i435.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Who Creates Jobs? Estimating Job Creation Rates at the Firm Level

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Huber
  • Harald Oberhofer
  • Michael Pfaffermayr

Abstract

This paper shows that applying simple employment-weighted OLS estimation to Davis – Haltiwanger – Schuh (1996) firm level job creation rates taking the values 2 and –2 for entering and exiting firms, respectively, provides biased and inconsistent parameter estimates. Consequently, we argue that entries and exits should be analysed separately and propose an alternative, consistent estimation procedure assuming that the size of continuing firms follows a lognormal distribution. A small-scale Monte Carlo analysis confirms the analytical results. Using a sample of Austrian firms, we demonstrate that the impact of small firms on net job creation is substantially underestimated when applying employment-weighted OLS estimation.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Huber & Harald Oberhofer & Michael Pfaffermayr, 2012. "Who Creates Jobs? Estimating Job Creation Rates at the Firm Level," WIFO Working Papers 435, WIFO.
    • Handle: RePEc:wfo:wpaper:y:2012:i:435
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wifo.ac.at/wwa/pubid/45038
    File Function: abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Steven J. Davis & John Haltiwanger & Ron Jarmin & Javier Miranda, 2007. "Volatility and Dispersion in Business Growth Rates: Publicly Traded versus Privately Held Firms," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2006, Volume 21, pages 107-180, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Emilia Del Bono & Andrea Weber & Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, 2012. "Clash Of Career And Family: Fertility Decisions After Job Displacement," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 10(4), pages 659-683, August.
    3. John Haltiwanger & Ron S. Jarmin & Javier Miranda, 2010. "Who Creates Jobs? Small vs. Large vs. Young," Working Papers 10-17, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    4. Alfred Stiglbauer & Florian Stahl & Rudolf Winter-Ebmer & Josef Zweimüller, 2003. "Job Creation and Job Destruction in a Regulated Labor Market: The Case of Austria," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 30(2), pages 127-148, June.
    5. Alex Coad, 2009. "The Growth of Firms," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13424.
    6. Haltiwanger, John C. & Vodopivec, Milan, 2002. "Worker Flows, Job Flows and Firm Wage Policies: An Analysis of Slovenia," IZA Discussion Papers 569, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Martina Fink & Esther Segalla & Andrea Weber & Christine Zulehner, 2010. "Extracting Firm Information from Administrative Records: The ASSD Firm Panel," NRN working papers 2010-04, The Austrian Center for Labor Economics and the Analysis of the Welfare State, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    8. John Baldwin & Timothy Dunne & John Haltiwanger, 1998. "A Comparison Of Job Creation And Job Destruction In Canada And The United States," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 80(3), pages 347-356, August.
    9. Davidson, Russell & MacKinnon, James G., 1993. "Estimation and Inference in Econometrics," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195060119.
    10. Guertzgen Nicole, 2009. "Firm Heterogeneity and Wages under Different Bargaining Regimes: Does a Centralised Union Care for Low-Productivity Firms?," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 229(2-3), pages 239-253, April.
    11. Steven J. Davis & John C. Haltiwanger & Scott Schuh, 1998. "Job Creation and Destruction," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262540932, April.
    12. David Card & Raj Chetty & Andrea Weber, 2007. "Cash-on-Hand and Competing Models of Intertemporal Behavior: New Evidence from the Labor Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(4), pages 1511-1560.
    13. Michaela Fuchs & Antje Weyh, 2010. "The determinants of job creation and destruction: plant-level evidence for Eastern and Western Germany," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 37(4), pages 425-444, November.
    14. Fotini Voulgaris & Theodore Papadogonas & George Agiomirgianakis, 2005. "Job Creation and Job Destruction in Greek Manufacturing," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(2), pages 289-301, May.
    15. Catherine Armington & Zoltan J. Acs, 2008. "Job Creation and Persistence in Services and Manufacturing," Chapters, in: Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy, chapter 23, pages 324-340, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    16. Peter Huber & Michael Pfaffermayr, 2010. "Testing for Conditional Convergence in Variance and Skewness: The Firm Size Distribution Revisited," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 72(5), pages 648-668, October.
    17. Haltiwanger, John C. & Vodopivec, Milan, 2002. "Gross worker and job flows in a transition economy: an analysis of Estonia," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(5), pages 601-630, November.
    18. Pekka Ilmakunnas & Mika Maliranta, 2005. "Worker inflow, outflow, and churning," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(10), pages 1115-1133.
    19. Steven J. Davis & John Haltiwanger, 1992. "Gross Job Creation, Gross Job Destruction, and Employment Reallocation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(3), pages 819-863.
    20. repec:bla:obuest:v:62:y:2000:i:0:p:885-907 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. R. Jason Faberman, 2003. "Job Flows and Establishment Characteristics: Variations Across U.S. Metropolitan Areas," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 2003-609, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    22. Rikke Ibsen & Niels Westergaard-Nielsen, 2005. "Job Creation and Destruction over the Business Cycles and the Impact on Individual Job Flows in Denmark 1980-2001," AStA Advances in Statistical Analysis, Springer;German Statistical Society, vol. 89(2), pages 183-207, June.
    23. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/59cr4u3mmr9pobrceptvua5g8c is not listed on IDEAS
    24. Peter Huber & Harald Oberhofer & Michael Pfaffermayr, 2014. "Job creation and the intra-distribution dynamics of the firm size distribution," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 23(1), pages 171-197, February.
    25. Giuseppe Moscarini & Fabien Postel-Vinay, 2012. "The Contribution of Large and Small Employers to Job Creation in Times of High and Low Unemployment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(6), pages 2509-2539, October.
    26. David Neumark & Brandon Wall & Junfu Zhang, 2011. "Do Small Businesses Create More Jobs? New Evidence for the United States from the National Establishment Time Series," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(1), pages 16-29, August.
    27. John Haltiwanger & Milan Vodopivec, 2003. "Worker flows, job flows and firm wage policies," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 11(2), pages 253-290, June.
    28. P. Hart, 2000. "Theories of Firms' Growth and the Generation of Jobs," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 17(3), pages 229-248, November.
    29. Richard E. Caves, 1998. "Industrial Organization and New Findings on the Turnover and Mobility of Firms," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(4), pages 1947-1982, December.
    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. Benjamin Furlan & Harald Oberhofer & Hannes Winner, 2016. "A note on merger and acquisition evaluation," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 25(3), pages 447-455.
    2. Antoine Berthou & Vincent Vicard, 2015. "Firms' Export Dynamics: Experience Versus Size," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(7), pages 1130-1158, July.
    3. Minjie Deng & Chang Liu, 2021. "Sovereign Risk and Intangible Investment," Discussion Papers dp21-16, Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University.
    4. Jesús Cuaresma & Harald Oberhofer & Gallina Vincelette, 2014. "Institutional barriers and job creation in Central and Eastern Europe," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-29, December.
    5. Oberhofer, Harald & Vincelette, Gallina A, 2013. "Determinants of job creation in eleven new EU member states : evidence from firm level data," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6533, The World Bank.
    6. Alex Coad & Christina Guenther, 2014. "Processes of firm growth and diversification: theory and evidence," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 43(4), pages 857-871, December.
    7. Iza Lejárraga & Harald Oberhofer, 2015. "Performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises in services trade: evidence from French firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 673-702, October.
    8. Werner Hölzl, 2012. "Arbeitsplatzschaffung und Beschäftigungsgrößenklassen. Eine Untersuchung methodischer Alternativen," WIFO Working Papers 425, WIFO.
    9. Hanhyung Pyo & Sungcheol Hong & Ahnjeong Kim, 2016. "Firm Size and Job Creation in Korea: Do Small Businesses Create More Jobs?," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 32, pages 137-166.
    10. Biswajit Banerjee & Manca Jesenko, 2016. "The Role of Firm Size and Firm Age in Employment Growth: Evidence for Slovenia, 1996-2013," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 13(2), pages 199-219, December.

    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. Huber, Peter & Oberhofer, Harald & Pfaffermayr, Michael, 2017. "Who creates jobs? Econometric modeling and evidence for Austrian firm level data," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 57-71.
    2. Peter Huber & Harald Oberhofer & Michael Pfaffermayr, 2014. "Job creation and the intra-distribution dynamics of the firm size distribution," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 23(1), pages 171-197, February.
    3. Elisabeth Christen & Michael Pfaffermayr & Yvonne Wolfmayr, 2019. "Trade Costs in Services. Firm Survival, Firm Growth and Implied Changes in Employment," WIFO Working Papers 593, WIFO.
    4. Jozef Konings & Olga Kupets & Hartmut Lehmann, 2002. "Gross Job Flows in Ukraine: Size, Ownership and Trade Effects," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 521, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    5. Atanas Christev & Olga Kupets & Hartmut Lehmann, 2008. "Trade Liberalisation and Employment Effects in Ukraine," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 50(2), pages 318-340, June.
    6. J. David Brown & John S. Earle, 2004. "Economic Reforms and Productivity-Enhancing Reallocation in the Post-Soviet Transition," Upjohn Working Papers 04-98, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    7. repec:bla:etrans:v:11:y:2003-06:i:2:p:321-356 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Martin-Barroso, David & Nuñez-Serrano, Juan Andres & Turrion, Jaime & Velazquez, Francisco J., 2011. "The European Map of Job Flows," MPRA Paper 33602, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2011.
    9. Luz Adriana Flórez & Leonardo Morales Z & Daniel Medina & José Lobo C, 2017. "Labour flows across firm´s size, economic sectors and wages in Colombia: evidence from employer-employee linked panel," Borradores de Economia 1013, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    10. Chiara Criscuolo & Peter N. Gal & Carlo Menon, 2014. "The Dynamics of Employment Growth: New Evidence from 18 Countries," CEP Discussion Papers dp1274, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    11. Marco Corsino & Roberto Gabriele & Sandro Trento, 2010. "Job flows in Italian SMEs: a longitudinal analysis of growth, size and age," DISA Working Papers 1008, Department of Computer and Management Sciences, University of Trento, Italy, revised 22 Dec 2010.
    12. Bhaskar Jyoti Neog & Bimal Kishore Sahoo, 2020. "Job Reallocation Dynamics in India: Evidence from Large Manufacturing Plants," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 82(4), pages 934-959, August.
    13. Luz A. Flórez & Leonardo Fabio Morales & Daniel Medina & José Lobo, 2021. "Labor flows across firm size, age, and economic sector in Colombia vs. the United States," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 1569-1600, October.
    14. Ma, Hong & Qiao, Xue & Xu, Yuan, 2015. "Job creation and job destruction in China during 1998–2007," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 1085-1100.
    15. Faggio, Giulia & Konings, Jozef, 2003. "Job creation, job destruction and employment growth in transition countries in the 90s," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 129-154, June.
    16. J. David Brown & John S. Earle, 2002. "Job Reallocation and Productivity Growth under Alternative Economic Systems and Policies: Evidence from the Soviet Transition," CERT Discussion Papers 0208, Centre for Economic Reform and Transformation, Heriot Watt University.
    17. Oznur Ozdamar & Eleftherios Giovanis & Sahizer Samuk, 2020. "State business relations and the dynamics of job flows in Egypt and Turkey," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 10(4), pages 519-558, December.
    18. Michaela Fuchs & Antje Weyh, 2010. "The determinants of job creation and destruction: plant-level evidence for Eastern and Western Germany," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 37(4), pages 425-444, November.
    19. Giovanni Gallipoli & Gianluigi Pelloni, 2013. "Macroeconomic Effects of Job Reallocations: A Survey," Review of Economic Analysis, Digital Initiatives at the University of Waterloo Library, vol. 5(2), pages 127-176, December.
    20. Julián Messina & Giovanna Vallanti, 2007. "Job Flow Dynamics and Firing Restrictions: Evidence from Europe," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(521), pages 279-301, June.
    21. repec:lic:licosd:12602 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Görg, Holger & Henze, Philipp & Jienwatcharamongkhol, Viroj & Kopasker, Daniel & Molana, Hassan & Montagna, Catia & Sjöholm, Fredrik, 2017. "Firm size distribution and employment fluctuations: Theory and evidence," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(4), pages 690-703.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    DHS growth rate; Job creation; Monte Carlo simulation; firm age; firm size;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C18 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Methodolical Issues: General
    • C53 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Forecasting and Prediction Models; Simulation Methods
    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • M13 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - New Firms; Startups

    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:wfo:wpaper:y:2012:i:435. 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: Florian Mayr (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/wifooat.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.