Comparative Analysis of Firm Demographics and Survival

This paper presents evidence on firm demographics and firm survival for a group of ten OECD countries. For each country a dataset of sectoral indicators of firm dynamics has been created using information from business registers. The patterns of firm entry, exit, survival and employment growth are described and analysed across countries, sectors, and over time. We find that both sectoral and country effects are important in determining firms demographics. We also find that entry and exit rates are fairly similar across countries, while post entry performance differ markedly between Europe and the US, a potential indication of the importance of barriers to firm growth as opposed to barriers to entry. Further, the paper provides a discussion of how these data may be used to gain a better understanding of the process through which economic policy and institutions may affect aggregate patterns of employment, output, and productivity growth ...