IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/phsmap/v458y2016icp356-363.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Global evidence on the distribution of economic profit rates

Author

Listed:
  • Williams, Michael A.
  • Baek, Grace
  • Park, Leslie Y.
  • Zhao, Wei

Abstract

Gibrat (1931) initiated the study of the distribution of firms’ profit rates, suggesting the distribution was log-normal. Although initial empirical work supported that finding, a consensus has developed in the literature that the distribution of firm profit rates is best approximated by the Laplace distribution. Using a richer database than prior studies and testing for more theoretical distributions, we find that the distribution of firm profit rates is best approximated by the heavier-tailed Cauchy distribution.

Suggested Citation

  • Williams, Michael A. & Baek, Grace & Park, Leslie Y. & Zhao, Wei, 2016. "Global evidence on the distribution of economic profit rates," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 458(C), pages 356-363.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:458:y:2016:i:c:p:356-363
    DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2016.04.027
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378437116301492
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only. Journal offers the option of making the article available online on Science direct for a fee of $3,000
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.physa.2016.04.027?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Matthew Holian & Ali Reza, 2011. "Firm and industry effects in accounting versus economic profit data," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(6), pages 527-529.
    2. Giovanni Dosi & Sébastien Lechevalier & Angelo Secchi, 2010. "Interfirm heterogeneity: nature, sources and consequences for industrial dynamics. An introduction," Post-Print hal-00642680, HAL.
    3. William P. Rogerson, 2008. "Intertemporal Cost Allocation and Investment Decisions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 116(5), pages 931-950, October.
    4. Xavier Gabaix, 2011. "The Granular Origins of Aggregate Fluctuations," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 79(3), pages 733-772, May.
    5. Fu, Dongfeng & Pammolli, Fabio & Buldyrev, Sergey V. & Riccaboni, Massimo & Matia, Kaushik & Yamasaki, Kazuko & Stanley, H. Eugene, 2005. "The Growth of Business Firms: Theoretical Framework and Empirical Evidence," MPRA Paper 15905, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Dosi, Giovanni & Nelson, Richard R., 2010. "Technical Change and Industrial Dynamics as Evolutionary Processes," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 51-127, Elsevier.
    7. Giovanni Dosi & Sébastien Lechevalier & Angelo Secchi, 2010. "Introduction: Interfirm heterogeneity--nature, sources and consequences for industrial dynamics," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 19(6), pages 1867-1890, December.
    8. Julian Wells, Julian, 2007. "The rate of profit as a random variable," MPRA Paper 98235, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Rogerson, William P, 1997. "Intertemporal Cost Allocation and Managerial Investment Incentives: A Theory Explaining the Use of Economic Value Added as a Performance Measure," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(4), pages 770-795, August.
    10. Smith, Adam, 1776. "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number smith1776.
    11. Philipp Mundt & Simone Alfarano & Mishael Milakovic, 2016. "Gibrat’s Law Redux: think profitability instead of growth," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 25(4), pages 549-571.
    12. Ellis Scharfenaker, 2015. "A Quantal Response Model of Firm Competition," Working Papers 1507, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics.
    13. Gregor Semieniuk & Ellis Scharfenaker, 2014. "A Bayesian Latent Variable Mixture Model for Filtering Firm Profit Rate," SCEPA working paper series. 2014-1, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.
    14. Harley E. Ryan & Emery A. Trahan, 2007. "Corporate Financial Control Mechanisms and Firm Performance: The Case of Value‐Based Management Systems," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1‐2), pages 111-138, January.
    15. Ishikawa, Atushi, 2009. "Power-Law and Log-Normal Distributions in Temporal Changes of Firm-Size Variables," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 3, pages 1-25.
    16. Ishikawa, Atushi & Fujimoto, Shouji & Mizuno, Takayuki, 2011. "Shape of growth-rate distribution determines the type of Non-Gibrat’s Property," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 390(23), pages 4273-4285.
    17. Erik Stern, 2011. "China Adopts EVA: An Essential Step in the Great Leap Forward," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 23(1), pages 57-62, January.
    18. Einar Erlingsson & Simone Alfarano & Marco Raberto & Hlynur Stefánsson, 2013. "On the distributional properties of size, profit and growth of Icelandic firms," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 8(1), pages 57-74, April.
    19. 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.
    20. Ian Wright, 2004. "A conjecture on the distribution of firm profit," Papers cond-mat/0407687, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2011.
    21. Merton H. Miller & Franco Modigliani, 1961. "Dividend Policy, Growth, and the Valuation of Shares," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34, pages 411-411.
    22. Harley E. Ryan & Emery A. Trahan, 2007. "Corporate Financial Control Mechanisms and Firm Performance: The Case of Value-Based Management Systems," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1-2), pages 111-138.
    23. Alfarano, Simone & Milaković, Mishael & Irle, Albrecht & Kauschke, Jonas, 2012. "A statistical equilibrium model of competitive firms," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 136-149.
    24. Cornelia Metzig & Mirta Gordon, 2012. "Heterogeneous Enterprises in a Macroeconomic Agent-Based Model," Papers 1211.5575, arXiv.org.
    25. Fisher, Franklin M & McGowan, John J, 1983. "On the Misuse of Accounting Rates of Return to Infer Monopoly Profits," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(1), pages 82-97, March.
    26. Salamon, Gerald L, 1985. "Accounting Rates of Return," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(3), pages 495-504, June.
    27. Wagner, Friedrich & Milaković, Mishael & Alfarano, Simone, 2010. "Firm profitability and the network of organizational capabilities," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 389(21), pages 4769-4775.
    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. David Vidal-Tomás & Alba Ruiz-Buforn & Omar Blanco-Arroyo & Simone Alfarano, 2022. "A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Growth and Profit Rate Distribution: The Spanish Case," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-20, March.
    2. Sandro Claudio Lera & Didier Sornette, 2017. "GDP growth rates as confined L\'evy flights," Papers 1709.05594, arXiv.org.
    3. Williams, Michael A. & Baek, Grace & Li, Yiyang & Park, Leslie Y. & Zhao, Wei, 2017. "Global evidence on the distribution of GDP growth rates," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 468(C), pages 750-758.

    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. David Vidal-Tomás & Alba Ruiz-Buforn & Omar Blanco-Arroyo & Simone Alfarano, 2022. "A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Growth and Profit Rate Distribution: The Spanish Case," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-20, March.
    2. Williams, Michael A. & Baek, Grace & Li, Yiyang & Park, Leslie Y. & Zhao, Wei, 2017. "Global evidence on the distribution of GDP growth rates," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 468(C), pages 750-758.
    3. Thomas Brenner & Matthias Duschl, 2018. "Modeling Firm and Market Dynamics: A Flexible Model Reproducing Existing Stylized Facts on Firm Growth," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 52(3), pages 745-772, October.
    4. Stephen H. Penman & Xiao-Jun Zhang, 2021. "Connecting book rate of return to risk and return: the information conveyed by conservative accounting," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 391-423, March.
    5. Mundt, Philipp & Alfarano, Simone & Milaković, Mishael, 2020. "Exploiting ergodicity in forecasts of corporate profitability," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    6. Oh, Ilfan, 2019. "Autonomy of profit rate distribution and its dynamics from firm size measures: A statistical equilibrium approach," BERG Working Paper Series 146, Bamberg University, Bamberg Economic Research Group.
    7. Mundt, Philipp & Förster, Niels & Alfarano, Simone & Milaković, Mishael, 2014. "The real versus the financial economy: A global tale of stability versus volatility," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 8, pages 1-26.
    8. 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.
    9. Halvarsson, Daniel, 2013. "Identifying High-Growth Firms," Ratio Working Papers 215, The Ratio Institute.
    10. Javier Papa & Luke Rehill & Brendan O'Connor, 2021. "Patterns of Firm-Level Productivity in Ireland," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 52(3), pages 241-268.
    11. Magni, Carlo Alberto, 2016. "Capital depreciation and the underdetermination of rate of return: A unifying perspective," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 54-79.
    12. Terranova, Roberta & Turco, Enrico M., 2022. "Concentration, stagnation and inequality: An agent-based approach," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 569-595.
    13. Fontanelli, Luca & Guerini, Mattia & Napoletano, Mauro, 2023. "International trade and technological competition in markets with dynamic increasing returns," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    14. Ciarli, Tommaso & Valente, Marco, 2016. "The complex interactions between economic growth and market concentration in a model of structural change," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 38-54.
    15. Madhav V. Rajan & Stefan Reichelstein, 2009. "Depreciation Rules and the Relation between Marginal and Historical Cost," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3), pages 823-865, June.
    16. Jakub Growiec & Fabio Pammolli & Massimo Riccaboni, 2020. "Innovation and Corporate Dynamics: A Theoretical Framework," Central European Journal of Economic Modelling and Econometrics, Central European Journal of Economic Modelling and Econometrics, vol. 12(1), pages 1-45, March.
    17. Philipp Mundt & Simone Alfarano & Mishael Milaković, 2022. "Survival and the Ergodicity of Corporate Profitability," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(5), pages 3726-3734, May.
    18. Areti Gkypali & Kostas Kounetas & Kostas Tsekouras, 2019. "European countries’ competitiveness and productive performance evolution: unraveling the complexity in a heterogeneity context," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 665-695, April.
    19. Wright, Ian, 2009. "Implicit Microfoundations for Macroeconomics," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 3, pages 1-27.
    20. Carlo Alberto Magni, 2009. "Accounting and economic measures:An integrated theory of capital budgeting," Centro Studi di Banca e Finanza (CEFIN) (Center for Studies in Banking and Finance) 0019, Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Dipartimento di Economia "Marco Biagi".

    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:eee:phsmap:v:458:y:2016:i:c:p:356-363. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/physica-a-statistical-mechpplications/ .

    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.