High-Growth Firms: Not So Vital After All?

Sammanfattning

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 initially have low profits and a weak financial position. This might explain why studies have found that so few high-growth firms are capable of sustaining their high growth rates in subsequent periods, and thus question policies that are targeted towards these companies.
Related content: Working paper No. 263

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Stadsstorlek och konkurrens bland arbetsgivare: Hur påverkas lönepremier och inkomstojämlikhet?

RapporterPublikation

Halvarsson, D., & Korpi, M.

Publiceringsår

2025

Publicerat i

Institutet för arbetsmarknads- och utbildningspolitisk utvärdering.

Sammanfattning

I föreliggande studie undersöker vi den s.k. storstadslönepremien och dess förhållande till arbetsgivarkoncentration inom lokala arbetsmarknader. Med storstadslönepremien avses det positiva samband som – allt annat lika – finns mellan löneinkomst och stadstorlek. Vi skattar denna lönepremie både utifrån traditionella metoder och ett nytt beräkningssätt som utgår från företagsspecifika faktorer (företagsfixa effekter), och finner att dessa två beräkningssätt i stort sett ger likvärdiga resultat, något som talar för att storstadslönepremien såsom den vanligen skattas sannolikt även är kopplad till faktorer som ligger på företagsnivå snarare än endast faktorer på individnivå. Beroende på analysmetod finner vi därefter att ungefär 20-30 procent av lönepremien kan förklaras av graden av konkurrens om arbetskraften inom lokala branscher. Även om detta samband gäller för alla inkomstsegment, finner vi slutligen att graden av konkurrens har störst påverkan på toppinkomstnivåer inom lokala arbetsmarknader (över den 90:e percentilen). Våra resultat går alltså att tolka som att lokal arbetsgivarkoncentration även påverkar inkomstojämlikheten inom lokala arbetsmarknader.

City size, employer concentration, and wage income inequality

Working paperPublikation

Halvarsson, D., & Korpi, M.

Publiceringsår

2025

Publicerat i

Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy (IFAU)

Sammanfattning

This study investigates the relationship between the urban wage premium and employer concentration using Swedish full population employer-employee data. Departing from an AKM modeling framework to distinguish worker from firm specific heterogeneity – a measure of rent-sharing – we then measure the urban wage premium using differences in the estimated firm fixed effects at the level of local industries, nested within local labor markets. Our results suggest that labor market employer concentration, as calculated using the Hirschman-Herfindahl index and a leave-one-out instrumental variable design, can account for a significant share of the estimated urban wage premium (UWP). Addressing city-level wage income inequality by applying our model to different segments of the local labor market income distribution, we find that while the UWP pertains to all income segments, it is largest for top-income levels (above the 90th percentile), and within this segment employer concentration also has the largest explanatory power. Thus, while being an important explanatory factor for all percentiles of the local income distribution, a relatively lower employer concentration within larger cities, and vice versa, higher concentration within smaller cities, primarily help explain the variance of top wages within these cities/labor markets.

Sammanfattning

Liknande innehåll

Stadsstorlek och konkurrens bland arbetsgivare: Hur påverkas lönepremier och inkomstojämlikhet?

RapporterPublikation

Halvarsson, D., & Korpi, M.

Publiceringsår

2025

Publicerat i

Institutet för arbetsmarknads- och utbildningspolitisk utvärdering.

Sammanfattning

City size, employer concentration, and wage income inequality

Working paperPublikation

Halvarsson, D., & Korpi, M.

Publiceringsår

2025

Publicerat i

Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy (IFAU)

Sammanfattning

Does new shopping centre development benefit or harm the local suburban market? Heterogeneous effects from shopping centre type and distance

Artikel (med peer review)Publikation

Mihaescu, O., Korpi, M., & Öner, Ö.

Publiceringsår

2024

Publicerat i

The Annals of Regional Science

Sammanfattning

We study the effects of new shopping centre developments on the performance of 7041 retail and hospitality firms located in the suburbs of Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. In particular, we analyse to what extent these effects vary with respect to the distance to, and characteristics of, these newly established centres. Exploiting data covering a 17-year period (2000–2016) in a fixed-effects panel regression framework, we find that the establishment of new neighbourhood centres is associated with an average increase in revenues and employment for retail incumbents by + 1.80% and + 1.20%, respectively, for each 100-m reduction in distance to the respective centre. Similarly, the introduction of large regional centres is associated with an increase in the revenues and employment of hospitality firms by + 1.40% and + 1.20%, respectively, for every 100-m decrease in proximity to the new shopping centre. Retail firms are affected by regional centres only in terms of their revenues, which increase by + 0.70% for each 100-m decrease in distance. Our results indicate a diminishing impact of both regional and neighbourhood centres with increased distance, suggesting a broader geographical reach for the effects of regional centres.

Sammanfattning

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Sammanfattning

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Skill Requirements and Employment of Immigrants in Swedish Hospitality