The photoluminescence droop effect, i.e., the decrease in emission efficiency with increasing excitation intensity, is observed and studied in GaN epilayers with different carrier lifetimes. Spontaneous and stimulated emissions have been studied in the front-face and edge emission configurations. The onset of stimulated recombination occurs simultaneously with the droop onset in the front-face configuration and might be considered as an origin of the droop effect in GaN epilayers.