Was Robert Gibrat right? A test based on the graphical model methodology

Marco Guerzoni (), Luigi Riso and Marco Vivarelli ()
Additional contact information
Marco Guerzoni: DEMS, Università di Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy - BETA, University of Strasbourg, France

No dipe0031, DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Politica Economica from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE)

Abstract: Using both regression analysis and an unsupervised graphical model approach (never applied before to this issue), we confirm the rejection of the Gibrat’s law when our firm-level data are considered over the entire investigated period, while the opposite is true when we allow for market selection. Indeed, the growth behavior of the re-shaped (smaller) population of the survived most efficient firms is in line with the Law of Proportionate Effect; this evidence reconciles early and current literature testing Gibrat’s law and may have interesting implications in terms of both applied and theoretical research.

Keywords: Gibrat’s Law; firm survival; market selection; firm growth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22
Date: 2023-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-com, nep-ent and nep-tid
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://dipartimenti.unicatt.it/politica-economica-DIPE0031.pdf First version, 2023 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Was Robert Gibrat right? A test based on the graphical model methodology (2025)
Working Paper: Was Robert Gibrat Right? A Test Based on the Graphical Model Methodology (2023)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ctc:serie5:dipe0031

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Politica Economica from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Fabio Montobbio ().