IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/13553.html

Fading Stars

Author

Listed:
  • Philippon, Thomas

Abstract

We study the evolution of super star firms in the U.S. economy over the past 60 years. Contrary to common wisdom, sup-er stars firms have not become larger, have not become more productive, and contribution of star firms to aggregate U.S. productivity growth has fallen by more than one third since 2000.

Suggested Citation

  • Philippon, Thomas, 2019. "Fading Stars," CEPR Discussion Papers 13553, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
  • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13553
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cepr.org/publications/DP13553
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Autor & David Dorn & Lawrence F Katz & Christina Patterson & John Van Reenen, 2020. "The Fall of the Labor Share and the Rise of Superstar Firms [“Automation and New Tasks: How Technology Displaces and Reinstates Labor”]," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(2), pages 645-709.
    2. Robert J. Gordon, 2016. "Perspectives on The Rise and Fall of American Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(5), pages 72-76, May.
    3. Carmen M. Reinhart & Kenneth S. Rogoff, 2009. "Varieties of Crises and Their Dates," Introductory Chapters, in: This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, Princeton University Press.
    4. Dan Andrews & Chiara Criscuolo & Peter N. Gal, 2015. "Frontier Firms, Technology Diffusion and Public Policy: Micro Evidence from OECD Countries," OECD Productivity Working Papers 2, OECD Publishing.
    5. Jan De Loecker & Frederic Warzynski, 2012. "Markups and Firm-Level Export Status," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(6), pages 2437-2471, October.
    6. Charles R. Hulten, 1978. "Growth Accounting with Intermediate Inputs," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 45(3), pages 511-518.
    7. Karl Widerquist, 2018. "The Bottom Line," Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee, in: A Critical Analysis of Basic Income Experiments for Researchers, Policymakers, and Citizens, chapter 0, pages 93-98, Palgrave Macmillan.
    8. repec:rnp:ecopol:09111 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Nicolas Crouzet & Janice Eberly, 2018. "Intangibles, Investment, and Efficiency," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 108, pages 426-431, May.
    10. Xavier Gabaix, 2011. "The Granular Origins of Aggregate Fluctuations," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 79(3), pages 733-772, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Germán Gutiérrez & Thomas Philippon, 2019. "Fading Stars," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 109, pages 312-316, May.
    2. David Rezza Baqaee & Emmanuel Farhi, 2020. "Productivity and Misallocation in General Equilibrium," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(1), pages 105-163.
    3. Cavalleri, Maria Chiara & Eliet, Alice & McAdam, Peter & Petroulakis, Filippos & Soares, Ana & Vansteenkiste, Isabel, 2019. "Concentration, market power and dynamism in the euro area," Working Paper Series 2253, European Central Bank.
    4. Marie Le Mouel & Alexander Schiersch, 2020. "Knowledge-Based Capital and Productivity Divergence," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1868, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    5. Campos, Nauro F. & De Grauwe, Paul & Ji, Yuemei, 2025. "Structural reforms and economic performance: the experience of advanced economies," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120870, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Nauro F. Campos & Paul De Grauwe & Yuemei Ji, 2025. "Structural Reforms and Economic Performance: The Experience of Advanced Economies," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 63(1), pages 111-163, March.
    7. Weche John P. & Wambach Achim, 2021. "The Fall and Rise of Market Power in Europe," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 241(5-6), pages 555-575, November.
    8. Sang-Ha Yoon & Yaein Baek & Wontae Han & Yoonsoo Lee & Daisoon Kim, 2022. "코로나19 위기와 기업경쟁구도 변화: 과거 경제위기와의 비교를 중심으로(Covid-19 Crisis and Shifts in the Corporate Competitive Landscape: Comparisons with Previous Economic Crises)," Policy Analyses 22-13, Korea Institute for International Economic Policy.
    9. Emmanuel Dhyne & Ayumu Ken Kikkawa & Glenn Magerman, 2022. "Imperfect Competition in Firm-to-Firm Trade," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 20(5), pages 1933-1970.
    10. Steiner, Elizabeth & Stucki, Yannic, 2025. "The impact of exchange rate fluctuations on markups – firm-level evidence for Switzerland," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    11. Altomonte, Carlo & Favoino, Domenico & Morlacco, Monica & Sonno, Tommaso, 2021. "Markups, intangible capital and heterogeneous financial frictions," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 114280, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Wang, Lihao & Chai, Jiwen & Nie, Song & Han, Shangrong, 2026. "IPR protection and markup in China: Balancing innovation incentives and markup distortions," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    13. Martinez Cillero Maria & Napolitano Lorenzo & Rentocchini Francesco & Seri Cecilia & Zaurino Elena, 2025. "M&As, Innovation and Superstar Firms," JRC Working Papers on Corporate R&D and Innovation 2025-03, Joint Research Centre.
    14. Chara Vavoura, 2024. "The Rise of the Superstars: Uncovering the Composition Effect of International Trade That Cements the Dominant Position of Big Businesses," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-21, May.
    15. Eeckhout, Jan & De loecker, Jan & Mongey, Simon, 2021. "Quantifying Market Power And Business Dynamism In The Macroeconomy," CEPR Discussion Papers 16097, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    16. Nakamura, Koji & Kaihatsu, Sohei & Yagi, Tomoyuki, 2019. "Productivity improvement and economic growth: lessons from Japan," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 57-79.
    17. Diego Vallarino, 2026. "Sandpile Economics: Theory, Identification, and Evidence," Papers 2604.13890, arXiv.org.
    18. David Baqaee & Emmanuel Farhi, 2020. "Entry vs. Rents: Aggregation with Economies of Scale," NBER Working Papers 27140, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Jan De Loecker & Jan Eeckhout & Gabriel Unger, 2020. "The Rise of Market Power and the Macroeconomic Implications [“Econometric Tools for Analyzing Market Outcomes”]," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(2), pages 561-644.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13553. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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 CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc 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 RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CEPR (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://cepr.org/ .

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.