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American Economic Review Vol. 98 No. 1 2008

On the Evolution of Firm Size Distributions

Paolo Angelini; Andrea Generale

Bank of Italy, Economic Research Department, Via Nazionale 91, 00184 Rome, Italy.

Abstract

We study the impact of financial constraints on firm size distribution (FSD). We find that financially constrained firms, identified using various proxies, are smaller than the others (their FSD is more skewed to the right). Among OECD countries, however, the FSD of nonconstrained firms virtually overlaps that of the entire sample, suggesting that the overall impact of financial constraints on the FSD is modest. The difference is more pronounced in our sample of firms from non-OECD countries. We conclude that financial constraints cannot be considered the main determinant of the FSD evolution in developed economies.

DOI
10.1257/aer.98.1.426
Volume
98
Issue
1
Pages
426-438
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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