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Power laws in firm size and openness to trade: Measurement and implications

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  • di Giovanni, Julian
  • Levchenko, Andrei A.
  • Rancière, Romain

Abstract

Existing estimates of power laws in firm size typically ignore the impact of international trade. Using a simple theoretical framework, we show that international trade systematically affects the distribution of firm size: the power law exponent among exporting firms should be strictly lower in absolute value than the power law exponent among non-exporting firms. We use a dataset of French firms to demonstrate that this prediction is strongly supported by the data, both for the economy as a whole and at the industry level. Furthermore, the differences between power law coefficients for exporters and non-exporters are larger in sectors that are more open to trade. While estimates of power law exponents have been used to pin down parameters in theoretical and quantitative models, our analysis implies that the existing estimates are systematically lower than the true values. We propose two simple ways of estimating power law parameters that take explicit account of exporting behavior.

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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Journal of International Economics.

Volume (Year): 85 (2011)
Issue (Month): 1 (September)
Pages: 42-52

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Handle: RePEc:eee:inecon:v:85:y:2011:i:1:p:42-52

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Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505552

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Keywords: Firm size distribution International trade Power laws;

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References

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  1. Julian di Giovanni & Andrei A. Levchenko, 2009. "International Trade and Aggregate Fluctuations in Granular Economies," Working Papers 585, Research Seminar in International Economics, University of Michigan.
  2. Gabaix, Xavier & Landier, Augustin, 2008. "Why Has CEO Pay Increased So Much?," Open Access publications from University of Toulouse 1 Capitole http://neeo.univ-tlse1.fr, University of Toulouse 1 Capitole.
  3. Thomas Chaney, 2008. "Distorted Gravity: The Intensive and Extensive Margins of International Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(4), pages 1707-21, September.
  4. Gordon H. Hanson & Chong Xiang, 2008. "Testing the Melitz Model of Trade: An Application to U.S. Motion Picture Exports," NBER Working Papers 14461, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  5. Esteban Rossi-Hansberg & Mark L. J. Wright, 2003. "Urban structure and growth," Discussion Paper / Institute for Empirical Macroeconomics 141, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
  6. Jonathan Eaton & Samuel Kortum & Francis Kramarz, 2008. "An Anatomy of International Trade: Evidence from French Firms," NBER Working Papers 14610, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  7. Melitz, Marc J, 2002. "The Impact of Trade on Intra-Industry Reallocations and Aggregate Industry Productivity," CEPR Discussion Papers 3381, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  8. Jeroen Hinloopen & Charles van Marrewijk, 2006. "Comparative Advantage, the Rank-size Rule, and Zipf's Law," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 06-100/1, Tinbergen Institute.
  9. Esteban Rossi-Hansberg & Mark L. J. Wright, 2007. "Urban Structure and Growth," Review of Economic Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(2), pages 597-624, 04.
  10. Xavier Gabaix, 1999. "Zipf'S Law For Cities: An Explanation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 114(3), pages 739-767, August.
  11. Costas Arkolakis, 2009. "A Unified Theory of Firm Selection and Growth," CESifo Working Paper Series 2679, CESifo Group Munich.
  12. Yeaple, Stephen & Helpman, Elhanan & Melitz, Marc, 2004. "Export versus FDI with Heterogeneous Firms," Scholarly Articles 3229098, Harvard University Department of Economics.
  13. Xavier Gabaix, 2011. "The Granular Origins of Aggregate Fluctuations," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 79(3), pages 733-772, 05.
  14. Hanson, Gordon & Xiang, Chong, 2011. "Trade barriers and trade flows with product heterogeneity: An application to US motion picture exports," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 14-26, January.
  15. Xavier Gabaix & Rustam Ibragimov, 2007. "Rank-1/2: A Simple Way to Improve the OLS Estimation of Tail Exponents," NBER Technical Working Papers 0342, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  16. Yongseok Shin & Francisco Buera, 2007. "Financial Frictions and the Persistence of History: A Quantitative Exploration," 2007 Meeting Papers 300, Society for Economic Dynamics.
  17. Esteban Rossi-Hansberg & Mark L. J. Wright, 2007. "Urban Structure and Growth," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 74(2), pages 597-624.
  18. Erzo G. J. Luttmer, 2007. "Selection, Growth, and the Size Distribution of Firms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 122(3), pages 1103-1144, 08.
  19. Easterly, William & Reshef, Ariell & Schwenkenberg, Julia, 2009. "The power of exports," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5081, The World Bank.
  20. Xavier Gabaix, 2009. "Power Laws in Economics and Finance," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 255-294, 05.
  21. Costas Arkolakis, 2010. "Market Penetration Costs and the New Consumers Margin in International Trade," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 118(6), pages 1151 - 1199.
  22. Francisco J. Buera & Yongseok Shin, 2006. "Financial Frictions and the Persistence of History," 2006 Meeting Papers 792, Society for Economic Dynamics.
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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. MAYNERIS, Florian, 2011. "A new perspective on the firm size-growth relationship: shape of profits, investment and heterogeneous credit constraints," CORE Discussion Papers 2011062, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
  2. Sun, Churen & Tian, Guoqiang & Zhang, Tao, 2011. "When Pareto meets Melitz: the inapplicability of the Melitz-Pareto model for Chinese firms," MPRA Paper 35597, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  3. Franziska Bremus, 2011. "Financial Integration and Macroeconomic Stability: What Role for Large Banks?," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1178, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
  4. Julian di Giovanni & Andrei A. Levchenko, 2011. "Country Size, International Trade, and Aggregate Fluctuations in Granular Economies," NBER Working Papers 17335, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  5. Luis Garicano & Claire Lelarge & John Van Reenen, 2012. "Firm Size Distortions and the Productivity Distribution: Evidence from France," CEP Discussion Papers dp1128, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
  6. Shawn ARITA & TANAKA Kiyoyasu, 2011. "Simulating Heterogeneous Multinational Firms," Discussion papers 11025, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
  7. Thomas A. Lubik & Katheryn N. Russ, 2012. "Exchange rate volatility in a simple model of firm entry and FDI," Economic Quarterly, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, issue 1Q, pages 51-76.
  8. Benjamin R. Mandel, 2013. "Chinese exports and U.S. import prices," Staff Reports 591, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
  9. Loris Rubini & Klaus Desmet & Facundo Piguillem & Aranzazu Crespo, . "Breaking down the barriers to firmgrowth in Europe The fourth EFIGE policy report," Blueprints, Bruegel, number 744, September.
  10. Kiyoyasu Tanaka & Naomi Hatsukano, 2011. "The size distribution of all Cambodian establishments," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 31(3), pages 2128-2137.
  11. Sun, Churen & Zhang, Tao, 2012. "Export, Productivity Pattern, and Firm Size Distribution," MPRA Paper 36742, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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