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Growth volatility and size: a firm-level study

Author

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  • Calvino, Flavio
  • Criscuolo, Chiara
  • Menon, Carlo
  • Secchi, Angelo
Abstract
This paper provides a systematic cross-country investigation of the relation between a firm’s growth volatility and its size. For the first time the analysis is carried out using comparable and representative sets of data sourced by official business registers of an important number of countries. We show that there exists a robust negative relation between growth volatility and size with an average elasticity equal to −0.18. We check the robustness of this result against a number of potential sources of bias and in particular with respect to sectoral disaggregation and against the inclusion of firm age. Our result is consistent with the idea that independently from specific country characteristics there exists a common underlying mechanism driving the elasticity between size and growth volatility. We then propose two mechanisms able to explain our result and we conclude discussing its relevance with respect to the recent literature on granularity.

Suggested Citation

  • Calvino, Flavio & Criscuolo, Chiara & Menon, Carlo & Secchi, Angelo, 2018. "Growth volatility and size: a firm-level study," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 87597, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:87597
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    Cited by:

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    2. Arata, Yoshiyuki, 2019. "Firm growth and Laplace distribution: The importance of large jumps," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 63-82.
    3. Giovanni Dosi & Marco Grazzi & Daniele Moschella & Gary Pisano & Federico Tamagni, 2020. "Long-term firm growth: an empirical analysis of US manufacturers 1959–2015," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 29(2), pages 309-332.
    4. Yang, Jangho & Heinrich, Torsten & Winkler, Julian & Lafond, François & Koutroumpis, Pantelis & Farmer, J. Doyne, 2019. "Measuring productivity dispersion: a parametric approach using the Lévy alpha-stable distribution," MPRA Paper 96474, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Giovanni Dosi & Richard B Freeman & Marcelo C Pereira & Andrea Roventini & Maria Enrica Virgillito, 2021. "The impact of deunionization on the growth and dispersion of productivity and pay [It’s where you work: increases in the dispersion of earnings across establishments and individuals in the United S," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 30(2), pages 377-408.
    6. Campi, Mercedes & Dueñas, Marco, 2020. "Volatility and economic growth in the twentieth century," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 330-343.
    7. Flavio Calvino & Daniele Giachini & Mattia Guerini, 2022. "The age distribution of business firms," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 205-245, January.
    8. Stelian STANCU & Eugenia GRECU & Mirela Ionela ACELEANU & Daniela Livia TRAŞCĂ & Claudiu Tiberiu ALBULESCU, 2021. "Does Firm Size Matters for Firm Growth? Evidence from the Romanian Health Sector," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(1), pages 17-31, December.
    9. Giulio Bottazzi & Taewon Kang & Federico Tamagni, 2023. "Persistence in firm growth: inference from conditional quantile transition matrices," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 745-770, August.
    10. Antonella Biscione & Raul Caruso & Annunziata de Felice, 2021. "Environmental innovation in European transition countries," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(5), pages 521-535, January.
    11. Chodorow-Reich, Gabriel & Darmouni, Olivier & Luck, Stephan & Plosser, Matthew, 2022. "Bank liquidity provision across the firm size distribution," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(3), pages 908-932.
    12. Caglayan, Mustafa & Machokoto, Michael, 2024. "The sensitivity of investment to internal and external funds: New emerging market evidence," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(PB).
    13. Yang, Jangho & Heinrich, Torsten & Winkler, Julian & Lafond, François & Koutroumpis, Pantelis & Farmer, J. Doyne, 2019. "Measuring productivity dispersion: a parametric approach using the Lévy alpha-stable distribution," MPRA Paper 96474, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    firm size; Gibrat’s law; volatility of growth;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D20 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - General
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance

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