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On Average Establishment Size across Sectors and Countriesy

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  • Pedro Bento
  • Diego Restuccia
Abstract
We construct a new dataset for the average employment size of establishments across sectors and countries from hundreds of sources. Establishments are larger in manufacturing than in services, and in each sector they are larger in richer countries. The cross-country income elasticity of establishment size is remarkably similar across sectors, about 0.3. We discuss these facts in light of several prominent theories of development such as entry costs and misallocation. We then quantify the sectoral and aggregate impact of entry costs and misallocation in an otherwise standard two-sector model with endogenous firm entry, firm-level productivity, and sectoral employment shares. We find that observed measures of misallocation account for the entire range of establishment-size differences across sectors and countries and almost 50 percent of the difference in non-agricultural GDP per capita between rich and poor countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Pedro Bento & Diego Restuccia, 2018. "On Average Establishment Size across Sectors and Countriesy," NBER Working Papers 24968, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24968
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    Cited by:

    1. Da-Rocha, José-María & Restuccia, Diego & Tavares, Marina M., 2023. "Policy distortions and aggregate productivity with endogenous establishment-level productivity," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    2. Pedro Bento & Lin Shao & Faisal Sohail, 2023. "Gender Gaps in Time Use and Entrepreneurship," Working Papers 20230901-001, Texas A&M University, Department of Economics.
    3. Wang, Wenya & Yang, Ei, 2023. "Multi-product firms and misallocation," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    4. Marcela Eslava & John Haltiwanger & Álvaro Pinzón, 2022. "Job Creation in Colombia Versus the USA: ‘Up‐or‐out Dynamics’ Meet ‘The Life Cycle of Plants’," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(355), pages 511-539, July.
    5. Peter Bauer & Igor Fedotenkov & Aurelien Genty & Issam Hallak & Peter Harasztosi & David Martinez Turegano & David Nguyen & Nadir Preziosi & Ana Rincon-Aznar & Miguel Sanchez Martinez, 2020. "Productivity in Europe: Trends and drivers in a service-based economy," JRC Research Reports JRC119785, Joint Research Centre.
    6. Bernard Hoekman & Martina Ferracane & Erik van der Marel van der Marel, 2023. "Digital Trade, Data Protection and EU Adequacy Decisions," RSCAS Working Papers 2023/37, European University Institute.
    7. Stephen Ayerst & Duc Nguyen & Diego Restuccia, 2024. "The Micro and Macro Productivity of Nations," Working Papers tecipa-779, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    8. Munseob Lee & Yongseok Shin, 2024. "The plant‐level view of Korea's growth miracle and slowdown," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 57(3), pages 704-725, August.
    9. Andrew Kerr & Bruce McDougall, 2020. "What is a firm census in a developing country? An answer from Ghana," SALDRU Working Papers 262, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    10. Kovalenko, Tim & Sauerbier, Timo & Schröpf, Benedikt, 2024. "The fall and rebound of average establishment size in West Germany," Discussion Papers 11/2024, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    11. Marijn A. Bolhuis & Swapnika R. Rachapalli & Diego Restuccia, 2021. "Misallocation in Indian Agriculture," NBER Working Papers 29363, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Pedro Bento & Diego Restuccia, 2019. "The Role of Nonemployers in Business Dynamism and Aggregate Productivity," Working Papers tecipa-640, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    13. Kaku Attah Damoah & Giorgia Giovannetti & Marco Sanfilippo, 2021. "Markup Dispersion and Firm Entry: Evidence from Ethiopia," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 83(2), pages 299-327, April.
    14. Bento, Pedro & Hwang, Sunju, 2023. "Barriers to black entrepreneurship: Implications for welfare and aggregate output over time," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 16-34.
    15. Perez Sebastian,Fidel & Steinbuks,Jevgenijs & Feres,Jose Gustavo & Trotter,Ian Michael, 2020. "Electricity Access and Structural Transformation : Evidence from Brazil's Electrification," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9182, The World Bank.
    16. Bento, Pedro & Ranasinghe, Ashantha, 2020. "Financial Frictions at Entry, Average Firm Size, and Productivity," Working Papers 2020-7, University of Alberta, Department of Economics, revised 01 Sep 2023.
    17. Pedro Bento, 2020. "Competition, Innovation, and the Number of Firms," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 37, pages 275-298, July.
    18. Christian Saborowski & Florian Misch, 2019. "Firm Size, Life Cycle Dynamics and Growth Constraints: Evidence from Mexico," IMF Working Papers 2019/087, International Monetary Fund.
    19. Chen, Guowen & Herrera, Ana María & Lugauer, Steven, 2022. "Policy and misallocation: Evidence from Chinese firm-level data," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    20. Marcela Eslava & John Haltiwanger & Nicolas Urdaneta, 2024. "The Size and Life-Cycle Growth of Plants: The Role of Productivity, Demand, and Wedges," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 91(1), pages 259-300.
    21. Kovalenko, Tim & Sauerbier, Timo & Schröpf, Benedikt, 2023. "The fall and rebound of average establishment size in West Germany," Discussion Papers 126, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.

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    JEL classification:

    • E02 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Institutions and the Macroeconomy
    • E1 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • O4 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity

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