How Firms Respond to Business Cycles: The Role of Firm Age and Firm Size

Teresa Fort, John Haltiwanger, Ron Jarmin and Javier Miranda

Working Papers from U.S. Census Bureau, Center for Economic Studies

Abstract: There remains considerable debate in the theoretical and empirical literature about the differences in the cyclical dynamics of firms by firm size. This paper contributes to the debate in two ways. First, the key distinction between firm size and firm age is introduced. The evidence presented in this paper shows that young businesses (that are typically small) exhibit very different cyclical dynamics than small/older businesses. The second contribution is to present evidence and explore explanations for the finding that young/small businesses were hit especially hard in the Great Recession. The collapse in housing prices accounts for a significant part of the large decline of young/small businesses in the Great Recession.

Pages: 77 pages
Date: 2013-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-cse, nep-ent, nep-hme, nep-sbm and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (306)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www2.census.gov/ces/wp/2013/CES-WP-13-30.pdf First version, 2013 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: How Firms Respond to Business Cycles: The Role of Firm Age and Firm Size (2013)
Working Paper: How Firms Respond to Business Cycles: The Role of Firm Age and Firm Size (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cen:wpaper:13-30

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