According to Gibrat’s Law of Proportionate Effect, the growth rate of a given firm is independent of its size at the beginning of the period examined. While earlier studies tended to confirm the Law, more recent research generally rejects it. This paper reconciles these two streams of...

While the vast economic literature on entry has beenrecently accompanied by a growing literature on the post-entry performance ofnewborn firms, still few studies propose a connection between the twophenomena. Exploiting the opportunity of using data concerning potential entrepreneurs,this study...