期刊名称：CORE Discussion Papers / Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (UCL), Louvain
出版年度：2011
卷号：2011
期号：1
出版社：Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (UCL), Louvain
摘要：This paper shows that the diverging results obtained in the literature on the firm
size - growth relationship can be reconciled in a very general theoretical framework
featuring firm - level heterogeneity and investment decision. Three main elements
determine the nature and the intensity of the relationship between firm- level size
and investment: the shape of operating profits with respect to size, the shape of marginal returns to investment (in terms of size) with respect to initial size and the
shape of marginal cost of investment with respect to size. Any difference across
countries, industries or periods in one of these three dimensions can modify the
sign and the intensity of the firm size- investment and the firm size - growth
relationship at equilibrium. As an example, I show that in France, heterogeneous
credit constraints, which affect the shape of the marginal cost of investment, can
explain cross- sectoral variations in the firm size- investment and firm size- growth
relationship over the 1996 - 2002 period. As a consequence, from a macroeconomic
viewpoint, firm size distribution is, all else equal, more right - skewed in sectors
where small firms are disproportionately credit constrained and small firms
participate les s to sectorial growth in these sectors. The analytical framework
proposed in this paper is general enough to apply to the analysis of any
heterogeneous response of economic agents.
