Microeconomic Evidence of Creative Destruction in Industrial and Developing Countries
In this paper the authors provide an analysis of the process of creative destruction across 24 countries and 2-digit industries over the past decade. They rely on a newly assembled dataset that draws from different micro data sources (business regi...
Main Authors: | , , |
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Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
Language: | English en_US |
Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2004/12/5587902/microeconomic-evidence-creative-destruction-industrial-developing-countries http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17423 |
Summary: | In this paper the authors provide an
analysis of the process of creative destruction across 24
countries and 2-digit industries over the past decade. They
rely on a newly assembled dataset that draws from different
micro data sources (business registers, census, or
representative enterprise surveys). The novelty of their
approach is in the harmonization of firm-level data across
countries, which enables international comparisons and the
identification of country-specific factors as opposed to
sector and time effects. All countries display a massive
reallocation of resources, with the entry and exit of many
firms in all markets, the failure of many newcomers and the
expansion of successful ones. This process of creative
destruction affects productivity directly by reallocating
resources toward more productive uses, but also indirectly
through the effects of increased market contestability.
There are also large differences across groups of countries.
While entry and exit rates are fairly similar across
industrial countries, post-entry performance differs
markedly between Europe and the United States, a potential
indication of the importance of barriers to firm growth as
opposed to barriers to entry. Transition economies show an
even more impressive process of creative destruction and,
those that have progressed the most toward a market economy
show better outcomes from this process. Finally, Mexico
shows large firm dynamics with many new firms entering the
battle but also many failing rapidly, while Argentina
resembles Continental Europe with smaller flows and less
impressive post-entry growth of successful firms. |
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