Ratio Working Paper No. 263: High-growth firms: Not so vital after all?

Abstract

High-growth firms have received considerable interest recently since they create most of the new jobs in the economy. The purpose of our paper is to investigate the characteristics of high-growth firms prior to their
growth period, and whether these characteristics differ across industries. Using data on a large sample of limited liability firms in Sweden for the period 2007-2010, we find that high-growth firms do not have the characteristics that we typically associate with successful firms. On the contrary, our results indicate that high-growth firms have low profits and a weak financial position. This might explain why studies have found that high-growth firms are seldom capable of sustaining their high growth rates in subsequent periods, and thus question policies that are targeted towards these companies.
Related content: High-Growth Firms: Not So Vital After All?

Amundsen versus Scott: are growth paths related to firm performance?

Article (with peer review)Publication

Coad, A., Daunfeldt, SO. & Halvarsson, D.

Publication year

2022

Published in

Small Business Economics 59, 593–610 (2022).

Abstract

In the race to the South Pole, Roald Amundsen’s expedition covered an equal distance each day, irrespective of weather conditions, while Scott’s pace was erratic. Amundsen won the race and returned without loss of life, while Scott and his men died. In the context of firm growth, the Amundsen hypothesis suggests that smoother growth paths are associated with better performance in subsequent periods. We develop a new method to investigate how firms’ sales growth deviates from their long-run average growth path. Our baseline results suggest that growth path volatility is associated with higher growth of sales and profits, but also with higher exit rates. However, this result is driven by firms with negative growth rates. For positive-growth firms, volatility is negatively associated with both sales growth and survival, providing nuanced support for the Amundsen hypothesis.

The article can be accessed here.

Ratio Working Paper No. 358: Native Population Turnover & Emerging Segregation: The Role of Amenities, Crime and Housing

Working paperPublication

Korpi, M., Halvarsson, D., Öner, Ö., A.V. Clark, W., Mihaescu, O., Östh, J. & Bäckman, O.

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Publication year

2022

Published in

Ratio Working Paper.

Abstract

Using geo-coded full-population grid-level data for the three largest metropolitan areas in Sweden, 1993-2016, this paper i) estimates the level and pace of ethnic segregation, ii) examines possible tipping points in this development, and iii) gauges the importance of several mitigating or exacerbating factors (such as the mix of housing area tenure type, different types of amenities, and crime). We use OLS and 2SLS to estimate outcomes at two different geographic levels; 250 x 250 square meter grids and SAMS areas (roughly equivalent to US census tracts), respectively. On average, we find that for every 1 percentage point increase in immigration, native growth is reduced by around -0.3 percentage points. Crime levels exacerbate developments and factors such as housing area tenure-type mix and access to various amenities slows it down, but only marginally so. Using repeated and single random sampling for cross-validation, and the twin common methodological approaches as suggested in the literature, we estimate possible tipping points in these segregation developments. In contrast to most other studies in the literature, none of our potential tipping points are however statistically significant when probing their relevance in explaining factual population developments, suggesting a rather more continuous – albeit steeply so – segregation process rather than a structural brake. In terms of tipping point methodology, our main findings are that fixed-point estimation is less robust than R-square maximization for small geographical units, and that the former consistently selects for lower tipping-point candidates than the latter.

Ratio Working Paper No. 360: Do gender norms travel within corporations? The impact of foreign subsidiaries on the home country gender wage gap

Working paperPublication

Halvarsson, D., Lark, O., Tingvall, P., Vatherd, P. & Videnord, J.

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Publication year

2022

Published in

Ratio Working Paper series.

Abstract

In this note, we provide evidence that gender norms can be transferred within firms and across borders by means of foreign direct investment. Using microdata from both Sweden and Estonia, two countries with vastly different levels of gender inequality, we find that firms in Sweden with strong intra-firm linkages to Estonia display a relatively large gender wage gap at home.

Ratio Working Paper No. 263

Abstract

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