Firm size and economic concentration: An analysis from a lognormal expansion

PLoS One. 2021 Jul 9;16(7):e0254487. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0254487. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

This paper studies the distribution of the firm size for the Colombian economy showing evidence against the Gibrat's law, which assumes a stable lognormal distribution. On the contrary, we propose a lognormal expansion that captures deviations from the lognormal distribution with additional terms that allow a better fit at the upper distribution tail, which is overestimated according to the lognormal distribution. As a consequence, concentration indexes should be addressed consistently with the lognormal expansion. Through a dynamic panel data approach, we also show that firm growth is persistent and highly dependent on firm characteristics, including size, age, and leverage -these results neglect Gibrat's law for the Colombian case.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Statistical Distributions*

Grants and funding

This research was funding by the Consejería de Educación of the Junta de Castilla y León (grant: SA049G19) and the publication APC fee will be partially supported by the University of Salamanca (Programas propios USAL, V). There was no additional external funding received for this study.