We study the role of employment protection legislation (EPL) in determining firm size distribution. In many countries the provisions of EPL are more stringent for firms above certain size thresholds. We construct a simple model that shows that the smooth relation between size and growth probability is broken in proximity of the thresholds at which EPL applies differentially. We use a comprehensive longitudinal dataset of all Italian firms, a country with an important threshold at 15 employees, to estimate the effects of EPL in terms of discouraging small firms from growing. We find that the probability of growing of firms in the proximity of the threshold is reduced by around 2%. We then construct a stochastic transition matrix for firm size that, together with the estimates, allows for a quantitative evaluation of the effects of EPL in the long run. Our results show that EPL does influence firm size distribution, but that its effects are quantitatively modest: average firm size would increase by less than 1% when removing the threshold effect. Our results suggest that EPL is unlikely to be a major determinant of cross-country differences in firm size.
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Paper provided by Society for Economic Dynamics in its series 2004 Meeting Papers with number
445.
Length: Date of creation: 2004 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:red:sed004:445
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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.:
Kumar, Krishna B & Rajan, Raghuram G & Zingales, Luigi, 1999.
"What Determines Firm Size?,"
CEPR Discussion Papers
2211, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Other versions:
Krishna B. Kumar & Raghuram G. Rajan & Luigi Zingales, .
"What Determines Firm Size?,"
CRSP working papers
496, Center for Research in Security Prices, Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago.
[Downloadable!]
Krishna B. Kumar & Raghuram G. Rajan & Luigi Zingales, 1999.
"What Determines Firm Size?,"
NBER Working Papers
7208, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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