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Sunk costs, market contestability, and the size distribution of firms

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  • Kessides, Ioannis N.
  • Tang, Li

Abstract

This paper offers a new economic explanation for the observed inter-industry differences in the size distribution of firms. The empirical estimates--based on three temporal (1982, 1987, and 1992) cross-sections of the four-digit United States manufacturing industries--indicate that increased market contestability, as signified by low sunk costs, tends to reduce the dispersion of firm sizes. These findings provide support for one of the key predictions of the theory of contestable markets: that market forces under contestability would tend to render any inefficient organization of the industry unsustainable and, consequently, tighten the distribution of firms around the optimum.

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Paper provided by The World Bank in its series Policy Research Working Paper Series with number 5540.

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Date of creation: 01 Jan 2011
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Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5540
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Keywords: Markets and Market Access; Economic Theory&Research; Water and Industry; Access to Markets; Debt Markets;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
  • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
  • L14 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Transactional Relationships; Contracts and Reputation

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  1. Luís Cabral & Thomas Ross, 2007. "Are Sunk Costs a Barrier to Entry?," Working Papers 19, Portuguese Competition Authority.
  2. Geroski, Paul A & Samiei, Hossein & Urga, Giovanni, 1997. "Are Differences in Firm Size Transitory or Permanent?," CEPR Discussion Papers 1691, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  3. Blandina Oliveira & Adelino Fortunato, 2006. "Testing Gibrat's Law: Empirical Evidence from a Panel of Portuguese Manufacturing Firms," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(1), pages 65-81.
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  6. Lotti, Francesca & Santarelli, Enrico & Vivarelli, Marco, 2007. "Defending Gibrat’s Law as a Long-Run Regularity," IZA Discussion Papers 2744, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
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  11. Kessides, Ioannis N, 1986. "Advertising, Sunk Costs, and Barriers to Entry," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 68(1), pages 84-95, February.
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  15. White, Lawrence J, 1981. "What Has Been Happening to Aggregate Concentration in the United States?," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 223-30, March.
  16. Ghosal, Vivek, 1996. "Does uncertainty influence the number of firms in an industry?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 229-236, February.
  17. Hagerman, Robert L & Senbet, Lemma W, 1976. "A Test of Accounting Bias and Market Structure," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 49(4), pages 509-14, October.
  18. Martin, Stephen, 1989. "Sunk costs, financial markets, and contestability," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 1089-1113, July.
  19. Ghosal, Vivek, 2007. "Small is Beautiful but Size Matters: The Asymmetric Impact of Uncertainty and Sunk Costs on Small and Large Businesses," MPRA Paper 5461, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  20. Xavier Gabaix, 1999. "Zipf'S Law For Cities: An Explanation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 114(3), pages 739-767, August.
  21. Vivek Ghosal, 2003. "Firm and Establishment Volatility: The Role of Sunk Costs, Profit Uncertainty and Technological Change," CESifo Working Paper Series 980, CESifo Group Munich.
  22. White, Lawrence J, 1982. "The Determinants of the Relative Importance of Small Business," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 64(1), pages 42-49, February.
  23. Berry, Steven & Reiss, Peter, 2007. "Empirical Models of Entry and Market Structure," Handbook of Industrial Organization, Elsevier.
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Cited by:

  1. Borchert, Ingo & Gootiiz, Batshur & Grover, Arti & Mattoo, Aaditya, 2012. "Landlocked or policy locked ? how services trade protection deepens economic isolation," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5942, The World Bank.
  2. Werner Hölzl, 2012. "Mobility Barriers and the Speed of Market Selection," WIFO Working Papers 437, WIFO.
  3. Pierre Blanchard & Jean-Pierre Huiban & Claude Mathieu, 2012. "The determinants of firm exit in the French food industries," Review of Agricultural and Environmental Studies - Revue d'Etudes en Agriculture et Environnement, INRA Department of Economics, vol. 93(2), pages 193-212.

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