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Innovative Growth Accounting

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  • Peter J. Klenow
  • Huiyu Li

Abstract

Recent work highlights a falling entry rate of new firms and a rising market share of large firms in the United States. To understand how these changing firm demographics have affected growth, we decompose produc­tivity growth into the firms doing the innovating. We trace how much each firm innovates by the rate at which it opens and closes plants, the market share of those plants, and how fast its surviving plants grow. Using data on all nonfarm businesses from 1982-2013, we find that new and young firms (ages Oto 5 years) account for almost one-half of growth- three times their share of employment. Large established firms contribute only one-tenth of growth despite representing one-fourth of employment. Older firms do explain most of the speedup and slowdown during the middle of our sam­ple. Finally, most growth takes the form of incumbents improving their own products, as opposed to creative destruction or new varieties.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter J. Klenow & Huiyu Li, 2020. "Innovative Growth Accounting," Working Paper Series 2020-16, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedfwp:87890
    DOI: 10.24148/wp2020-16
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    Cited by:

    1. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Ian Goldin & Pantelis Koutroumpis & François Lafond & Julian Winkler, 2024. "Why Is Productivity Slowing Down?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 62(1), pages 196-268, March.
    3. Hiroshi Inokuma & Juan M. Sanchez, 2023. "From Population Growth to TFP Growth," Working Papers 2023-006, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, revised 01 Sep 2025.
    4. Cantarella, Michele & Fraccaroli, Nicolò & Volpe, Roberto, 2024. "Does language prevent policy take-up? Evidence from the Italian Start-up Act," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(6).

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • O3 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights
    • O4 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity
    • O5 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies

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