Le territoire d'implantation : quel rôle pour la croissance des petites entreprises tunisiennes ?

In this paper we analyse the employment growth of 1389 Tunisian?s manufacturing small firms from 2006 to 2009. We propose an extension of the GIBRAT?s model in order to account explicitly inter-firm interactions. The aim is to show that firm?s growth is influenced not only by its own characteristics (size, age...) but also by the average growth rate and diffusion effect of neighbouring firms. We test also the effect of the industrial structure and the specific characteristics of each region on employment growth. The estimation results of spatial and non-spatial models show that GIBRAT?s law is rejected. Specialisation, diversity and industrial agglomeration have a positive impact on firm?s growth. The local competition has a negative effect, whereas the presence of skilled labor promotes the high-tech firm?s growth.