High-Growth Firms: What is the Impact of Region-Specific Characteristics?

This paper analyses high-growth firms in Portugal and aims at assessing the impact of region-specific characteristics on the probability of the firm being high-growth. Using a sample of active firms registered in the database Quadros de Pessoal between 2002 and 2006, the result suggest that high-growth firms is not a random phenomenon and that the region-specific characteristics determine significantly the probability of the firm being high-growth. In particular, industrial diversity, services agglomeration and diversity of employees qualifications in a region explain in a significantly way the probability of a firm being high-growth.