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Growth patterns of US professional services firms

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  • Edouard Ribes

    (CERNA i3 - Centre d'économie industrielle i3 - Mines Paris - PSL (École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris) - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - I3 - Institut interdisciplinaire de l’innovation - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

This paper investigates the growth of professional services firms [PSFs] in the US. It first demonstrates based on a 20 year longitudinal dataset, that Gibrat's law of firm growth doesn't hold for PSFs as the growth rate of their establishment is age and size dependent. While this behavior is shared across the US economy and the notable reference point of US manufacturing firms, US PSFs exhibit a specificity in the development of their firms that exhibit persistence in growth and in their development pattern that relies on the creation of small establishments (

Suggested Citation

  • Edouard Ribes, 2018. "Growth patterns of US professional services firms," Working Papers hal-01762381, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01762381
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-01762381v2
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Edouard Ribes, 2019. "A model of professional service firms performance with an application to US accounting firms," Working Papers hal-01825739, HAL.
    2. Edouard Ribes, 2021. "Scoping the transformation of the professional services industry," Working Papers hal-01889350, HAL.

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