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Statistical Regularities in the Evolution of Industries. A Guide through Some Evidence and Challenges for the Theory

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  • Giovanni Dosi

Abstract

Fundamental drivers of the evolution of contemporary economies are the activities of search, discovery and economic exploitation of new products, new production processes, new organizational arrangements within and amongst business firms. What are their marks in terms of statistical properties that such processes display? Three basic questions in particular are addressed in this work. First, are there distinct characteristics of the microentities (in primis, business firms) and their distributions which systematically persist over time? Second, how do such characteristics within the population of competing firms affect their relative evolutionary success over time? And in particular what are the ultimate outcomes in terms of growth and profitability performances? Third, amongst the foregoing statistical properties and relations between them, which ones are invariant across industries, and, conversely, which ones depend on the technological and market characteristics of particular sectors? In order to address these questions we proceed in a sort of "inductive" manner. I start by examining some basic features of the distributions of firms sizes, growth rates and profitability. Next, I consider some evidence on the underlying inter-firm heterogeneity - particularly with regard to technological innovativeness and productivity - and their relationships with corporate performances. Finally, the work recalls the basic elements of an evolutionary interpretation of the evidence. Together with important points of corroboration of such a view - including those regarding a profound heterogeneity of firms at all levels of observation - one also facing standing challenges in primis, concerning the purported role of markets as effective selection devices.

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  • Giovanni Dosi, 2008. "Statistical Regularities in the Evolution of Industries. A Guide through Some Evidence and Challenges for the Theory," L'industria, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 2, pages 185-220.
  • Handle: RePEc:mul:j0hje1:doi:10.1430/27262:y:2008:i:2:p:185-220
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    1. Luís M B Cabral & José Mata, 2003. "On the Evolution of the Firm Size Distribution: Facts and Theory," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(4), pages 1075-1090, September.
    2. Giulio Bottazzi & Elena Cefis & Giovanni Dosi & Angelo Secchi, 2003. "Invariances and Diversities in the Evolution of Manufacturing Industries," LEM Papers Series 2003/21, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    3. Giulio Bottazzi & Angelo Secchi, 2003. "Common Properties and Sectoral Specificities in the Dynamics of U.S. Manufacturing Companies," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 23(3_4), pages 217-232, December.
    4. Nunes Amaral, Luís A & Buldyrev, Sergey V & Havlin, Shlomo & Maass, Philipp & Salinger, Michael A & Eugene Stanley, H & Stanley, Michael H.R, 1997. "Scaling behavior in economics: The problem of quantifying company growth," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 244(1), pages 1-24.
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