Customer Acquisition, Business Dynamism, and Aggregate Growth

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Ignaszak, Marek; Sedlacek, Petr
• 署名单位: European Commission Joint Research Centre; EC JRC ISPRA Site; University of New South Wales Sydney
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMIC STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6527
• DOI: 10.1093/restud/rdag060
• 发表日期: 2026
• 关键词: selection; industry; reallocation; INNOVATION; turnover; gains; MODEL; rise

摘要

Business dynamism-the process of firm entry, growth and exit-lies at the heart of modern endogenous growth models. While productivity differences have traditionally been seen as the main driving forces of business dynamism, a growing body of evidence suggests that customer acquisition is at least as important. In light of this evidence, we propose a novel endogenous growth model in which innovating firms must first acquire customers to sell their products. Estimating our model with aggregate and firm-level data, we find that expansions of firms' customer bases (market sizes) boost their incentives to innovate and shift resources towards high-growth businesses (gazelles). Combined, these effects explain over 40% of aggregate growth and substantially change predictions about the efficacy of growth policies. Finally, we document support for key model predictions using firm-level micro-data.