Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

Downsizing in German Chemical Manufacturing Industry during the 1990s: Why Small Is Beautiful?

Contents:

Author Info

  • Oleg Badunenko

Abstract

German chemical manufacturing industry is marked by two major structural changes during 1992-2004. Firstly, number of firms was ranging extensively: from 676 to 901, while only 96 firms represented balanced panel. Secondly, size of the firm dropped considerably-by 88%. This paper is intended to shed light on both phenomena. Based on reliable census data analysis suggests the former evidence be explained (i) by persistent poor performance of firms and (ii) by so called "general purpose technology" argument. The latter phenomenon was found to be a rational behaviour because numerous firms continually operated under decreasing returns to scale.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
File URL: http://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.63383.de/dp722.pdf
Download Restriction: no

Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research in its series Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin with number 722.

as in new window
Length: 35 p.
Date of creation: 2007
Date of revision:
Publication status: Published in: Small Business Economics 34 (2010) 4, 413-431
Handle: RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp722

Contact details of provider:
Postal: Mohrenstraße 58, D-10117 Berlin
Phone: xx49-30-89789-0
Fax: xx49-30-89789-200
Email:
Web page: http://www.diw.de/en
More information through EDIRC

Related research

Keywords: DEA; technical and scale efficiency; technological change; firm size; firm level data; chemical manufacturing;

Find related papers by JEL classification:

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
as in new window
  1. Helpman, E. & Rangel, A., 1998. "Adjusting to a New Technology: Experience and Training," Papers 07-98, Tel Aviv.
  2. Fare, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna, 1985. " Nonparametric Cost Approach to Scale Efficiency," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 87(4), pages 594-604.
  3. Baldwin,John R. & Gorecki,Paul With contributions by-Name:Caves,Richard E. With contributions by-Name:Dunne,Tim With contributions by-Name:Haltiwanger,John, 1995. "The Dynamics of Industrial Competition," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521465618.
    • Baldwin,John R. & Gorecki,Paul With contributions by-Name:Caves,Richard E. With contributions by-Name:Dunne,Tim With contributions by-Name:Haltiwanger,John, 1998. "The Dynamics of Industrial Competition," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521633574.
  4. David B. Audretsch & Julie Ann Elston, 2004. "Can Institutional Change Impact High-Technology Firm Growth?: Evidence from Germany's Neuer Markt," Papers on Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy 2004-25, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy Group.
  5. Alvarez, Roberto & Crespi, Gustavo, 2003. " Determinants of Technical Efficiency in Small Firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 233-44, May.
  6. Banker, Rajiv D., 1984. "Estimating most productive scale size using data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 35-44, July.
  7. Daouia, Abdelaati & Simar, Léopold, 2007. "Nonparametric Efficiency Analysis: A Multivariate Conditional Quantile Approach ," Open Access publications from University of Toulouse 1 Capitole http://neeo.univ-tlse1.fr, University of Toulouse 1 Capitole.
  8. Cazals, Catherine & Florens, Jean-Pierre & Simar, Léopold, 2002. "Nonparametric Frontier Estimation: A Robust Approach," Open Access publications from University of Toulouse 1 Capitole http://neeo.univ-tlse1.fr, University of Toulouse 1 Capitole.
  9. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
  10. Harald Bathelt, 2000. "Persistent structures in a turbulent world: the division of labor in the German chemical industry," Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, Pion Ltd, London, vol. 18(2), pages 225-247, April.
  11. Fare, Rolf & Zelenyuk, Valentin, 2003. "On aggregate Farrell efficiencies," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 146(3), pages 615-620, May.
  12. repec:bla:restud:v:72:y:2005:i:1:p:135-159 is not listed on IDEAS
  13. Audretsch, David B & Elston, Julie A, 1997. " Financing the German Mittelstand," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 97-110, April.
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 in new window

Cited by:
  1. Alexander Schiersch, 2008. "German engineering firms during the 1990’s. How efficient are export champions?," Working Papers 006, Hanseatic University, Germany, Department of Economics.

Lists

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Statistics

Access and download statistics

Corrections

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp722

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Bibliothek).

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 references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link 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 profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.