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