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Job creation, firm creation, and de novo entry

Author

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  • Karen GEURTS
  • Johannes VAN BIESEBROECK

Abstract

Firm turnover and growth recorded in administrative data sets differ from underlying firm dynamics. By tracing the employment history of the workforce of new and disappearing administrative firm identifiers, we can accurately identify de novo entrants and true economic exits, even when firms change identifier, merge, or split-up. For a well-defined group of new firms entering the Belgian economy between 2004 and 2011, we find highly regular post-entry employment dynamics in spite of the volatile macroeconomic environment. Exit rates decrease with age and size. Surviving entrants record high employment growth that is monotonically decreasing with age in every size class. Most remarkably, we find that Gibrat’s law is violated for very young firms. Conditional on age, the relationship between employment growth and current size is strongly and robustly positive. This pattern is obscured, or even reversed, when administrative entrants and exits are taken at face value. De novo entrants’ contribution to job creation is relatively small and not very persistent, in particular for (the large majority of) new firms that enter with fewer than five employees.

Suggested Citation

  • Karen GEURTS & Johannes VAN BIESEBROECK, 2014. "Job creation, firm creation, and de novo entry," Working Papers of Department of Economics, Leuven ces14.25, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Economics, Leuven.
    • Handle: RePEc:ete:ceswps:ces14.25
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    Cited by:

    1. Gert Bijnens & Shyngys Karimov & Jozef Konings, 2023. "Does Automatic Wage Indexation Destroy Jobs? A Machine Learning Approach," De Economist, Springer, vol. 171(1), pages 85-117, March.
    2. Carita Eklund & Kristof van Criekingen, 2022. "Fast as a gazelle – young firms gaining from educational diversity," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(8), pages 927-947, September.
    3. Geurts, Karen & Van Biesebroeck, Johannes, 2016. "Firm creation and post-entry dynamics of de novo entrants," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 59-104.
    4. Andrea Linarello & Andrea Petrella & Enrico Sette, 2019. "Allocative Efficiency and Finance," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 487, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    5. Andrea Linarello & Andrea Petrella, 2017. "Productivity and Reallocation: Evidence from the Universe of Italian Firms," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 32, pages 116-136, Spring.
    6. Chiara Criscuolo & Peter N. Gal & Carlo Menon, 2014. "The Dynamics of Employment Growth: New Evidence from 18 Countries," CEP Discussion Papers dp1274, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    7. Chiara Criscuolo & Peter N. Gal & Carlo Menon, 2017. "Do micro start-ups fuel job creation? Cross-country evidence from the DynEmp Express database," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 393-412, February.
    8. Shyngys Karimov & Jozef Konings, 2021. "How lockdown causes a missing generation of start-ups and jobs," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 457-473, July.
    9. Gert Bijnens & Jozef Konings, 2020. "Declining business dynamism in Belgium," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 54(4), pages 1201-1239, April.
    10. Huber, Peter & Oberhofer, Harald & Pfaffermayr, Michael, 2017. "Who creates jobs? Econometric modeling and evidence for Austrian firm level data," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 57-71.
    11. Alex Coad & Julian S. Frankish & Albert N. Link, 2020. "The Economic Contribution of a Cohort of New Firms Over Time," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 57(3), pages 519-536, November.
    12. Füner, Lena & Berger, Marius & Bersch, Johannes & Hottenrott, Hanna, 2023. "Local networks and new business formation," ZEW Discussion Papers 23-067, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    13. Francesco Manaresi & Filippo Scoccianti, 2017. "Battle scars. New firms� capital, labor, and revenue growth during the double-dip recession," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 390, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    14. Victoria Golikova & Boris Kuznetsov, 2017. "Suboptimal Size: Factors Preventing the Growth of Russian Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises," Foresight and STI Governance, National Research University Higher School of Economics, vol. 11(3), pages 83-93.
    15. Shyngys Karimov & Jozef Konings, 2021. "The start-up gap and jobs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 2067-2084, December.
    16. Coad, Alex & Karlsson, Johan, 2022. "A field guide for gazelle hunters: Small, old firms are unlikely to become high-growth firms," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    17. Gert Bijnens & Joep Konings, 2018. "Declining Business Dynamism," Working Papers of Department of Economics, Leuven 614199, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Economics, Leuven.
    18. Karen Geurts & Johannes Van Biesebroeck, 2019. "Employment growth following takeovers," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 50(4), pages 916-950, December.
    19. Alex Coad & Masatoshi Kato & Stjepan Srhoj, 2025. "Gestation, endowments, and knowledge flows around the time of venture creation," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 35(3), pages 387-414, July.
    20. Kahsay Gerezihar Tsaedu & Zhihong Chen, 2021. "The Dynamics of Firm Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Ethiopian Manufacturing Sector 1996–2017," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 367-392, September.
    21. Flavio Calvino & Chiara Criscuolo & Carlo Menon, 2018. "A cross-country analysis of start-up employment dynamics," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 27(4), pages 677-698.
    22. Francesco Manaresi, 2015. "Net employment growth by firm size and age in Italy," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 298, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    23. Giorgio Barba Navaretti & Davide Castellani & Fabio Pieri, 2022. "CEO age, shareholder monitoring, and the organic growth of European firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 361-382, June.
    24. Karen Geurts, 2016. "Longitudinal firm-level data: problems and solutions," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 425-445, March.
    25. García-Vega, María, 2022. "R&D restructuring during the Great Recession and young firms," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • L16 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Industrial Organization and Macroeconomics; Macroeconomic Industrial Structure
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance

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