Firm growth: a survey

Alex Coad ()

Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne from Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne

Abstract: We survey the phenomenon of the growth of firms drawing on literature from economics, management and sociology. We begin with a review of empirical "stylised facts" before discussing theoretical contributions. Firm growth is characterized by a predominant stochastic element, making it difficult to predict. Indeed, previous empirical research into the determinants of firm growth has had a limited success. We also observe that theoretical propositions concerning the growth of firms are often amiss. We conclude that progress in this area requires solid empirical work, perhaps making use of novel statistical techniques.

Keywords: Firm growth; size distribution; growth rates distribution; Gibrat's law; theory of the firm; diversification; "stages of growth" models. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L25 L11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-ent and nep-tid
Date: 2007-05
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ftp://mse.univ-paris1.fr/pub/mse/CES2007/R07024.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Firm Growth: A Survey (2007)
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mse:cesdoc:r07024

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