Global evidence on the distribution of firm growth rates

Michael A. Williams, Brijesh P. Pinto and David Park

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2015, vol. 432, issue C, 102-107

Abstract: The consensus finding in the literature is that the distribution of firm growth rates is best approximated by the Laplace distribution, a particular case of the Subbotin, or exponential power, family of probability distributions. Using a richer database than prior studies and testing for more theoretical distributions, we find that the distribution of firm growth rates is best approximated by the heavier-tailed Cauchy distribution.

Keywords: Firm growth rates; Theoretical distributions; Empirical distribution function tests (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:432:y:2015:i:c:p:102-107

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2015.02.103

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