Multi-plant Firms and the Heavy Tail of Firm Size Distribution
By Shekhar Tomar, Anindya Chakrabarti
Canadian Journal of Economics | July 2024
Canadian Journal of Economics | July 2024
DOI
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/caje.12732?casa_token=Sx3n5rHK0B0AAAAA%3A_xPISv_uKHGg9ZdeAeATrAHcTA-MdCDZVi4rL7a6sW3g7FmU0nZbunU86OtzNmia2pck7kvBGV-DTvk
Citation
Tomar, Shekhar., Chakrabarti, Anindya. (2024). Multi-plant Firms and the Heavy Tail of Firm Size Distribution Canadian Journal of Economics onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/caje.12732?casa_token=Sx3n5rHK0B0AAAAA%3A_xPISv_uKHGg9ZdeAeATrAHcTA-MdCDZVi4rL7a6sW3g7FmU0nZbunU86OtzNmia2pck7kvBGV-DTvk.
Copyright
Canadian Journal of Economics, 2024
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Abstract
The right tail of the firm size distribution has a heavy tail. The origin of this phenomenon, especially the specific characteristics of firms driving this pattern, remain a subject of extensive debate. Previous work has shown that plant size distribution has thinner tails than firm size distribution, indicating the role of multi-plant firms. However, we do not know whether this phenomenon is simply a mechanical effect arising from aggregation across multiple plants or whether the plants of multi-plant firms are different from those of single-plant firms. Using novel data with plant-to-firm mapping, we document that plants of multi-plant firms are more heavy-tailed than single-plant firms, indicating the dominance of the selection effect at the intensive margin. Extensive margin via aggregation of sales at the firm level plays a less crucial role than the selection effect. Importantly, single-plant exporters have a thinner tail than multi-plant non-exporters, suggesting a more dominant role of multi-plant identity than export identity in explaining heavy tails.
Shekhar Tomar is an Assistant Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Indian School of Business (ISB). He completed his PhD from the Toulouse School of Economics in 2017 and worked as a Research Economist at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) between 2017 and 2019. His research lies at the intersection of macroeconomics, trade, and finance, and he extensively uses micro-data to answer macroeconomic questions in his work. During his stint at the RBI, he regularly contributed to policy work on monetary policy and trade issues in India.

Shekhar Tomar