Quantifying the Sources of Firm Heterogeneity*

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Hottman, Colin J.; Redding, Stephen J.; Weinstein, David E.
• 署名单位: Federal Reserve System - USA; Federal Reserve System Board of Governors; Princeton University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK; Columbia University
• 刊物名称: QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-5533
• DOI: 10.1093/qje/qjw012
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 1291-1364
• 关键词: multiproduct firms; INTERNATIONAL-TRADE; aggregate fluctuations; market-size; product; prices; QUALITY; differentiation; LIBERALIZATION; GLOBALIZATION

摘要

We develop and structurally estimate a model of heterogeneous multiproduct firms that can be used to decompose the firm-size distribution into the contributions of costs, appeal (quality or taste), markups, and product scope. Using Nielsen barcode data on prices and sales, we find that variation in firm appeal and product scope explains at least four fifths of the variation in firm sales. We show that the imperfect substitutability of products within firms, and the fact that larger firms supply more products than smaller firms, implies that standard productivity measures are highly dependent on implicit demand system assumptions and probably dramatically understate the relative productivity of the largest firms. Although most firms are well approximated by the monopolistic competition benchmark of constant markups, we find that the largest firms that account for most of aggregate sales depart substantially from this benchmark, and exhibit both variable markups and substantial cannibalization effects.