Dissecting the Size Distribution of Establishments Across Countries

We present a detailed description of cross-country differences in the size distribution of establishments as measured by Enterprise Surveys of the World Bank (2006-2010). We find that poorer countries tend to have smaller establishments, and hence a higher proportion of employment is allocated to such plants. We also find that, conditional on the level of per capita GDP, there is still a wide variation in the size distribution of establishments. We show that financial frictions and other costs imposed on the business environment can account for a sizeable part of such variation. Additionally, we exploit the richness of the data-set to document cross-sector differences in the size distribution of establishments. We show that establishments in manufacturing and construction tend to be larger on average than in retail and other services.

我们详细描述了世界银行企业调查（2006 - 2010年）所衡量的企业规模分布的跨国差异。我们发现较贫穷的国家往往企业规模较小，因此此类企业的就业比例较高。我们还发现，在人均国内生产总值水平既定的情况下，企业规模分布仍然存在很大差异。我们表明，金融摩擦和商业环境带来的其他成本可以解释这种差异的很大一部分。此外，我们利用数据集的丰富性来记录企业规模分布的跨部门差异。我们表明，制造业和建筑业的企业平均规模往往大于零售业和其他服务业。