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Using firm‐level based TFP indicators (as opposed to employment‐based proxies) we estimate the effects of alternative sources of dynamic externalities at the local level. In contrast to previous empirical work, we find that industrial specialization and scale indicators affect TFP growth positively, while neither product variety nor the degree of local competition have any effect. Employment‐based regressions yield nearly the opposite results, in line with most of previous empirical work. We argue that such regressions suffer from serious identification problems when interpreted as evidence of dynamic externalities. Our results question the conclusions of most of the existing literature on dynamic agglomeration economies. (JEL: R11, O47)

We investigate the effects of female executives on gender-specific wage distributions and firm performance. Female leadership has a positive impact at the top of the female wage distribution and a negative impact at the bottom. The impact of female leadership on firm performance increases with the share of female workers. We account for the endogeneity induced by non-random executives’ gender by including firm fixed-effects, by generating controls from a two-way fixed-effects regression and by using instruments based on regional trends. The findings are consistent with a model of statistical discrimination in which female executives are better at interpreting signals of productivity from female workers. This suggests substantial costs of women under-representation among executives.

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We empirically characterize the sectoral distribution of firm size for a set of European countries, finding substantial differences in the size distribution within sectors. We then study the relationship between productivity growth at the sectoral level and size structure. We find a positive and robust association between average firm size and growth. We tackle the question of why size should matter for growth, considering the role of innovative activity, to construct a test based on the differential effect of size structure on growth according to different indicators of R&D intensity. Our results indicate that larger average size fosters productivity growth because it makes possible to take advantage of all the increasing returns associated with R&D. We finally argue that our test can be interpreted as a test of reverse causality, which lends support to the view of firm size having a causal impact on growth.

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The authors investigate how worker-owned and capitalist enterprises differ with respect to wages, employment, and capital in Italy, the market economy with the greatest incidence of worker-owned and worker-managed firms. Estimates calculated using a matched employer-worker panel data set for the years 1982-94 largely corroborate the implications of orthodox behavioral models of the two types of enterprise. Co-ops had 14% lower wages than capitalist enterprises, on average; more volatile wages; and less volatile employment. Given the quality of the data set analyzed, the authors argue, these results can be regarded as having broad generality.