[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2009.06413.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Supervised learning for the prediction of firm dynamics

Author

Listed:
  • Falco J. Bargagli-Stoffi
  • Jan Niederreiter
  • Massimo Riccaboni
Abstract
Thanks to the increasing availability of granular, yet high-dimensional, firm level data, machine learning (ML) algorithms have been successfully applied to address multiple research questions related to firm dynamics. Especially supervised learning (SL), the branch of ML dealing with the prediction of labelled outcomes, has been used to better predict firms' performance. In this contribution, we will illustrate a series of SL approaches to be used for prediction tasks, relevant at different stages of the company life cycle. The stages we will focus on are (i) startup and innovation, (ii) growth and performance of companies, and (iii) firms exit from the market. First, we review SL implementations to predict successful startups and R&D projects. Next, we describe how SL tools can be used to analyze company growth and performance. Finally, we review SL applications to better forecast financial distress and company failure. In the concluding Section, we extend the discussion of SL methods in the light of targeted policies, result interpretability, and causality.

Suggested Citation

  • Falco J. Bargagli-Stoffi & Jan Niederreiter & Massimo Riccaboni, 2020. "Supervised learning for the prediction of firm dynamics," Papers 2009.06413, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2009.06413
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2009.06413
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Liangjun Su & Zhentao Shi & Peter C. B. Phillips, 2016. "Identifying Latent Structures in Panel Data," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 84, pages 2215-2264, November.
    2. Kim, Soo Y. & Upneja, Arun, 2014. "Predicting restaurant financial distress using decision tree and AdaBoosted decision tree models," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 354-362.
    3. van Witteloostuijn, Arjen & Kolkman, Daan, 2019. "Is firm growth random? A machine learning perspective," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 11(C), pages 1-1.
    4. Isil Erel & Léa H Stern & Chenhao Tan & Michael S Weisbach, 2021. "Selecting Directors Using Machine Learning," NBER Chapters, in: Big Data: Long-Term Implications for Financial Markets and Firms, pages 3226-3264, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Jon Kleinberg & Jens Ludwig & Sendhil Mullainathan & Ziad Obermeyer, 2015. "Prediction Policy Problems," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 491-495, May.
    6. Kyebambe, Moses Ntanda & Cheng, Ge & Huang, Yunqing & He, Chunhui & Zhang, Zhenyu, 2017. "Forecasting emerging technologies: A supervised learning approach through patent analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 236-244.
    7. Alex Coad, 2009. "The Growth of Firms," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13424.
    8. Kinne, Jan & Lenz, David, 2019. "Predicting innovative firms using web mining and deep learning," ZEW Discussion Papers 19-001, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    9. Rajagopal, 2014. "The Human Factors," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Architecting Enterprise, chapter 9, pages 225-249, Palgrave Macmillan.
    10. Sendhil Mullainathan & Jann Spiess, 2017. "Machine Learning: An Applied Econometric Approach," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(2), pages 87-106, Spring.
    11. Magnus Henrekson & Dan Johansson, 2010. "Gazelles as job creators: a survey and interpretation of the evidence," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 227-244, September.
    12. Mckenzie,David J. & Sansone,Dario & Mckenzie,David J. & Sansone,Dario, 2017. "Man vs. machine in predicting successful entrepreneurs : evidence from a business plan competition in Nigeria," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8271, The World Bank.
    13. Maryam Farboodi & Roxana Mihet & Thomas Philippon & Laura Veldkamp, 2019. "Big Data and Firm Dynamics," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 109, pages 38-42, May.
    14. Kaloyan Haralampiev & Boyan Yankov & Petko Ruskov, 2014. "Models and Tools for Technology Start-Up Companies Success Analysis," Economic Alternatives, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria, issue 3, pages 15-24, October.
    15. Alex Coad & Stjepan Srhoj, 0. "Catching Gazelles with a Lasso: Big data techniques for the prediction of high-growth firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-25.
    16. Mirko Moscatelli & Simone Narizzano & Fabio Parlapiano & Gianluca Viggiano, 2019. "Corporate default forecasting with machine learning," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1256, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    17. Marco Guerzoni & Consuelo R. Nava & Massimiliano Nuccio, 2019. "The survival of start-ups in time of crisis. A machine learning approach to measure innovation," Papers 1911.01073, arXiv.org.
    18. MIYAKAWA Daisuke & MIYAUCHI Yuhei & Christian PEREZ, 2017. "Forecasting Firm Performance with Machine Learning: Evidence from Japanese firm-level data," Discussion papers 17068, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    19. Mikalef, Patrick & Boura, Maria & Lekakos, George & Krogstie, John, 2019. "Big data analytics and firm performance: Findings from a mixed-method approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 261-276.
    20. Daan Kolkman & Arjen van Witteloostuijn, 2019. "Data Science in Strategy: Machine learning and text analysis in the study of firm growth," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 19-066/VI, Tinbergen Institute.
    21. Xin Ying Qiu & Padmini Srinivasan & Yong Hu, 2014. "Supervised learning models to predict firm performance with annual reports: An empirical study," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 65(2), pages 400-413, February.
    22. Susan Athey & Guido W. Imbens, 2019. "Machine Learning Methods That Economists Should Know About," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 11(1), pages 685-725, August.
    23. Athey, Susan & Imbens, Guido W., 2019. "Machine Learning Methods Economists Should Know About," Research Papers 3776, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    24. Coad, Alex & Frankish, Julian & Roberts, Richard G. & Storey, David J., 2013. "Growth paths and survival chances: An application of Gambler's Ruin theory," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 615-632.
    25. Rastin Matin & Casper Hansen & Christian Hansen & Pia M{o}lgaard, 2018. "Predicting Distresses using Deep Learning of Text Segments in Annual Reports," Papers 1811.05270, arXiv.org.
    26. Edward I. Altman, 1968. "Financial Ratios, Discriminant Analysis And The Prediction Of Corporate Bankruptcy," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(4), pages 589-609, September.
    27. Dean Fantazzini & Silvia Figini, 2009. "Random Survival Forests Models for SME Credit Risk Measurement," Methodology and Computing in Applied Probability, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 29-45, March.
    28. Jurij Weinblat, 2018. "Forecasting European high-growth Firms - A Random Forest Approach," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 253-294, September.
    29. Andreas Behr & Jurij Weinblat, 2017. "Default Patterns in Seven EU Countries: A Random Forest Approach," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(2), pages 181-222, May.
    30. Alex Coad & Stjepan Srhoj, 2020. "Catching Gazelles with a Lasso: Big data techniques for the prediction of high-growth firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 541-565, October.
    31. Falco J. Bargagli-Dtoffi & Massimo Riccaboni & Armando Rungi, 2020. "Machine Learning for Zombie Hunting. Firms Failures and Financial Constraints," Working Papers 01/2020, IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, revised Jun 2020.
    32. Edward I. Altman, 1968. "The Prediction Of Corporate Bankruptcy: A Discriminant Analysis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(1), pages 193-194, March.
    33. Ohlson, Ja, 1980. "Financial Ratios And The Probabilistic Prediction Of Bankruptcy," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 109-131.
    34. Imbens,Guido W. & Rubin,Donald B., 2015. "Causal Inference for Statistics, Social, and Biomedical Sciences," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521885881, September.
    35. Patrick Bajari & Victor Chernozhukov & Ali Hortaçsu & Junichi Suzuki, 2019. "The Impact of Big Data on Firm Performance: An Empirical Investigation," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 109, pages 33-37, May.
    36. Susan Athey, 2018. "The Impact of Machine Learning on Economics," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Artificial Intelligence: An Agenda, pages 507-547, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    37. Liang, Deron & Lu, Chia-Chi & Tsai, Chih-Fong & Shih, Guan-An, 2016. "Financial ratios and corporate governance indicators in bankruptcy prediction: A comprehensive study," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 252(2), pages 561-572.
    38. Buldyrev,S. V. & Pammolli,F. & Riccaboni,M. & Stanley,H. E., 2020. "The Rise and Fall of Business Firms," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107175488, September.
    39. Jermain C. Kaminski & Christian Hopp, 0. "Predicting outcomes in crowdfunding campaigns with textual, visual, and linguistic signals," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-23.
    40. Jean-Michel Dalle & Matthijs den Besten & Carlo Menon, 2017. "Using Crunchbase for economic and managerial research," OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers 2017/08, OECD Publishing.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dueñas, Marco & Ortiz, Víctor & Riccaboni, Massimo & Serti, Francesco, 2021. "Assessing the Impact of COVID-19 on Trade: a Machine Learning Counterfactual Analysis," Working papers 79, Red Investigadores de Economía.
    2. Falco J. Bargagli Stoffi & Kenneth De Beckker & Joana E. Maldonado & Kristof De Witte, 2021. "Assessing Sensitivity of Machine Learning Predictions.A Novel Toolbox with an Application to Financial Literacy," Papers 2102.04382, arXiv.org.
    3. Falco J. Bargagli-Dtoffi & Massimo Riccaboni & Armando Rungi, 2020. "Machine Learning for Zombie Hunting. Firms Failures and Financial Constraints," Working Papers 01/2020, IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, revised Jun 2020.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Falco J. Bargagli-Dtoffi & Massimo Riccaboni & Armando Rungi, 2020. "Machine Learning for Zombie Hunting. Firms Failures and Financial Constraints," Working Papers 01/2020, IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, revised Jun 2020.
    2. Falco J. Bargagli-Stoffi & Fabio Incerti & Massimo Riccaboni & Armando Rungi, 2023. "Machine Learning for Zombie Hunting: Predicting Distress from Firms' Accounts and Missing Values," Papers 2306.08165, arXiv.org.
    3. Lily Davies & Mark Kattenberg & Benedikt Vogt, 2023. "Predicting Firm Exits with Machine Learning: Implications for Selection into COVID-19 Support and Productivity Growth," CPB Discussion Paper 444, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    4. Ari Hyytinen & Petri Rouvinen & Mika Pajarinen & Joosua Virtanen, 2023. "Ex Ante Predictability of Rapid Growth: A Design Science Approach," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(6), pages 2465-2493, November.
    5. Elena Ivona DUMITRESCU & Sullivan HUE & Christophe HURLIN & Sessi TOKPAVI, 2020. "Machine Learning or Econometrics for Credit Scoring: Let’s Get the Best of Both Worlds," LEO Working Papers / DR LEO 2839, Orleans Economics Laboratory / Laboratoire d'Economie d'Orleans (LEO), University of Orleans.
    6. Alberto Tron & Maurizio Dallocchio & Salvatore Ferri & Federico Colantoni, 2023. "Corporate governance and financial distress: lessons learned from an unconventional approach," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 27(2), pages 425-456, June.
    7. Falco J. Bargagli Stoffi & Kenneth De Beckker & Joana E. Maldonado & Kristof De Witte, 2021. "Assessing Sensitivity of Machine Learning Predictions.A Novel Toolbox with an Application to Financial Literacy," Papers 2102.04382, arXiv.org.
    8. Yi Cao & Xiaoquan Liu & Jia Zhai & Shan Hua, 2022. "A two‐stage Bayesian network model for corporate bankruptcy prediction," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(1), pages 455-472, January.
    9. Alessandro Bitetto & Stefano Filomeni & Michele Modina, 2021. "Understanding corporate default using Random Forest: The role of accounting and market information," DEM Working Papers Series 205, University of Pavia, Department of Economics and Management.
    10. Yu Zhao & Huaming Du & Qing Li & Fuzhen Zhuang & Ji Liu & Gang Kou, 2022. "A Comprehensive Survey on Enterprise Financial Risk Analysis from Big Data Perspective," Papers 2211.14997, arXiv.org, revised May 2023.
    11. Jurij Weinblat, 2018. "Forecasting European high-growth Firms - A Random Forest Approach," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 253-294, September.
    12. Lundberg, Ian & Brand, Jennie E. & Jeon, Nanum, 2022. "Researcher reasoning meets computational capacity: Machine learning for social science," SocArXiv s5zc8, Center for Open Science.
    13. Ben Jabeur, Sami & Serret, Vanessa, 2023. "Bankruptcy prediction using fuzzy convolutional neural networks," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    14. Michael Pollmann, 2020. "Causal Inference for Spatial Treatments," Papers 2011.00373, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2023.
    15. Sophie-Charlotte Klose & Johannes Lederer, 2020. "A Pipeline for Variable Selection and False Discovery Rate Control With an Application in Labor Economics," Papers 2006.12296, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2020.
    16. Antonio Davila & George Foster & Xiaobin He & Carlos Shimizu, 2015. "The rise and fall of startups: Creation and destruction of revenue and jobs by young companies," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 40(1), pages 6-35, February.
    17. Florian Léon, 2022. "The elusive quest for high-growth firms in Africa: when other metrics of performance say nothing," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(1), pages 225-246, January.
    18. Haoming Wang & Xiangdong Liu, 2021. "Undersampling bankruptcy prediction: Taiwan bankruptcy data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(7), pages 1-17, July.
    19. Serrano-Cinca, Carlos & Gutiérrez-Nieto, Begoña & Bernate-Valbuena, Martha, 2019. "The use of accounting anomalies indicators to predict business failure," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 353-375.
    20. Michael Lechner, 2023. "Causal Machine Learning and its use for public policy," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 159(1), pages 1-15, December.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2009.06413. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.