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Selection and Firm Survival: Evidence from the Shipbuilding Industry, 1825-1914

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  • Peter Thompson

    (Florida International University)

Abstract

Several theories of firm performance can explain the well known observation that survival is positively related to age. However, a more mundane explanation-selection bias driven by variations in firm quality-may also underlie the phenomenon. This paper employs a 90 year plant-level panel data set on the U.S. iron and steel shipbuilding industry of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to discriminate between the explanations. The shipbuilding industry exhibits the usual joint dependence of survival on age and size, but this dependence is eliminated after controlling for heterogeneity by using preentry experience as a proxy for firm quality. The evidence points to a dominant role for selection bias in creating the age dependence of survival. At the same time, preentry experience is found to have a large and extremely persistent effect on survival, and this finding is inconsistent with standard explanations for the role of preentry experience on firm performance. © 2005 President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by MIT Press in its journal Review of Economics and Statistics.

Volume (Year): 87 (2005)
Issue (Month): 1 (February)
Pages: 26-36

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Handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:87:y:2005:i:1:p:26-36

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  1. Mata, Jose & Portugal, Pedro, 1994. "Life Duration of New Firms," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(3), pages 227-45, September.
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  12. Richard Disney & Jonathan Haskel & Ylva Heden, 2003. "Entry, Exit and Establishment Survival in UK Manufacturing," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(1), pages 91-112, 03.
  13. Peter Thompson, 2008. "The Iron and Steel Shipbuilding Data Set, 1825-1914: Sources, Coverage, and Coding Decisions," Working Papers 0807, Florida International University, Department of Economics.
  14. Jovanovic, Boyan, 1982. "Selection and the Evolution of Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(3), pages 649-70, May.
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  18. Baldwin, John R. Bian, Lin Dupuy, Richard Gellatly, Guy, 2000. "Failure Rates for New Canadian Firms: New Perspectives on Entry and Exit," Failure Rates for New Canadian Firms: New Perspectives on Entry and Exit, Statistics Canada, Economic Analysis Division, number stcb5e, December.
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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Luis F. Medrano E., 2012. "Patent Citations, University Inventor Patents, and Survival in the German Laser Source Industry (1960-2005)," Jena Economic Research Papers 2012-009, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Max-Planck-Institute of Economics.
  2. Jolanda Hessels & Isabel Grilo & Roy Thurik & Peter Zwan, 2011. "Entrepreneurial exit and entrepreneurial engagement," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 447-471, August.
  3. Coad, Alex, 2010. "Investigating the exponential age distribution of firms," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal, Kiel Institute for the World Economy, vol. 4(17), pages 1-30.
  4. Buddelmeyer, Hielke & Jensen, Paul H. & Webster, Elizabeth, 2006. "Innovation and the Determinants of Firm Survival," IZA Discussion Papers 2386, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  5. Iain M. Cockburn & Megan MacGarvie, 2007. "Patents, Thickets, and the Financing of Early-Stage Firms: Evidence from the Software Industry," NBER Working Papers 13644, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  6. Guido Buenstorf & Ulrich Witt, 2006. "How Problems of Organisational Growth in Firms Affect Industry Entry and Exit," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 97(5), pages 47-62.
  7. Roberto Fontana & Lionel Nesta, 2009. "Product Innovation and Survival in a High-Tech Industry," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer, vol. 34(4), pages 287-306, June.
  8. Hanas Cader & John Leatherman, 2011. "Small business survival and sample selection bias," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 37(2), pages 155-165, September.
  9. Margherita Balconi & Roberto Fontana, 2011. "Entry and innovation: an analysis of the fabless semiconductor business," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 37(1), pages 87-106, July.
  10. Peter Thompson, 2008. "The Iron and Steel Shipbuilding Data Set, 1825-1914: Sources, Coverage, and Coding Decisions," Working Papers 0807, Florida International University, Department of Economics.

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