This work explores basic properties of the size and growth rates distributions of firms at the aggregate and disaggregate levels. Using an extensive dataset on French manufacturing firms, we investigate which properties of firm size distributions and growth dynamics characterize the aggregate...

Serial correlation in annual growth rates carries a lot of information on growth processes it allows us to directly observe firm performance as well as to test theories. Using a 7-year balanced panel of 10 000 French manufacturing firms, we observe that small firms typically are subject to...

We attempt to describe the coevolution of employment growth, sales growth and growth of profits in a panel of French manufacturing firms 1996-2004. Our analysis entails 'recursive' panel vector autoregressions, whereby we impose the structure of employment growth leading to contemporaneous sales...