Are Large Firms Born or Made? : Evidence from Developing Countries

Ayyagari, Meghana ; Demirguc-Kunt, Asli ; Maksimovic, Vojislav

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: CORRELATIONS;    JOBS;    EMPLOYMENT;    RIGHTS;    MOTIVATION;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7406
RP-ID  :  WPS7406

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper uses survey data from 120developing countries to compare the role of institutionswith firm characteristics at the time of creation of thefirm in explaining the size, growth, and productivity offirms over their lifecycle. The study finds that firm-levelcharacteristics have comparable, and sometimes even larger,power than institutional factors in predicting size andgrowth, but not productivity. In particular, size at birthplays a key role in predicting variation in firm size andgrowth since birth over the firm lifecycle, whereas countryfactors dominate in predicting variation in laborproductivity over the firm lifecycle. The study also findsthat older firms are larger, partly because of the selectionof more efficient firms. The findings point to theimportance of initial founding conditions in explainingvariations in size and growth over the firm lifecycle across countries.