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On Size and Growth of Business Firms

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Author Info
De Fabritiis, Gianni
Riccaboni, Massimo
Pammolli, Fabio

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Abstract

We study size and growth distributions of products and business firms in the context of a given industry. Firm size growth is analyzed in terms of two basic mechanisms, i.e. the increase of the number of new elementary business units and their size growth. We find a power-law relationship between size and the variance of growth rates for both firms and products, with an exponent between -0.17 and -0.15, with a remarkable stability upon aggregation. We then introduce a simple and general model of proportional growth for both the number of firm independent constituent units and their size, which conveys a good representation of the empirical evidences. This general and plausible generative process can account for the observed scaling in a wide variety of economic and industrial systems. Our findings contribute to shed light on the mechanisms that sustain economic growth in terms of the relationships between the size of economic entities and the number and size distribution of their elementary components.

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File URL: http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/15866/
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by University Library of Munich, Germany in its series MPRA Paper with number 15866.

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Date of creation: Mar 2003
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Publication status: Published in Physica A 324.1-2(2003): pp. 38-44
Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:15866

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Related research
Keywords: Firm Growth; Power Laws; Gibrat's Law; Economic Growth; Pharmaceutical Industry;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
L65 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Chemicals; Rubber; Drugs; Biotechnology
D39 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Other

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  1. Stephen Hymer & Peter Pashigian, 1962. "Firm Size and Rate of Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 70, pages 556. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, 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.)

  1. Masanao Aoki, 2006. "Growth Patterns of Two Types of Macro-Models: Limiting Behavior of One-and Two-Parameter Poisson-Dirichlet Models," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-446, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo. [Downloadable!]
  2. Masanao Aoki, 2005. "Cluster Size Distributions of Heterogeneous Economic Agents: Are there non-self-averaging phenomena in economics?," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-388, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo. [Downloadable!]
  3. Buldyrev, Sergey V. & Pammolli, Fabio & Riccaboni, Massimo & Yamasaki, Kazuko & Fu, Dongfeng & Matia, Kaushik & Stanley, H. Eugene, 2006. "A Generalized Preferential Attachment Model for Business Firms Growth Rates: II. Mathematical Treatment," MPRA Paper 15980, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
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  4. 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. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Pammolli, Fabio & Fu, Dongfeng & Buldyrev, Sergey V. & Riccaboni, Massimo & Matia, Kaushik & Yamasaki, Kazuko & Stanley, H. Eugene, 2006. "A Generalized Preferential Attachment Model for Business Firms Growth Rates: I. Empirical Evidence," MPRA Paper 15983, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
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