Skip to main content
Log in

Size distributions and the optimal size of firms

  • Abhandlungen
  • Published:
Zeitschrift für Nationalökonomie Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Conclusions

We have assumed a specific statistical process which governs the competition among firms on the market.

This process assumes that the consumer choice in the market is the decisive factor in determining size distributions. There are clearly many other relations e. g. between firms that are important for the process. We have assumed that they are of minor importance.

We have assumed that the size distribution has reached an equilibrium and it is this equilibrium that we have studied. This is at best only true approximately. An extension of the presentation above would be to study non-equilibrium situations (open systems) which has proved to be fruitful in other contexts.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. I. Adelman: “A Stochastic Analysis of the Size Distribution of Firms”, The Journal of the American Statistical Association53 (1958), pp. 893–904.

    Google Scholar 

  2. H. Albach: “Simulation Models of Firm Growth”, The German Economic Review5 (1967), pp. 1–26.

    Google Scholar 

  3. N. R. Collins and L. E. Preston: Concentration and Price-Cost Margins in Manufacturing Industries, Los Angeles 1968.

  4. H. Cramér: Mathematical Methods of Statistics, Uppsala 1945.

  5. L. Engwall: Size Distributions of Firms — a Stochastic Model, The Swedish Journal of Economics70 (1968), pp. 138–159.

    Google Scholar 

  6. M. O. Finkelstein and R. M. Frieberg: The Application of an Entropy Theory of Concentration to the Clayton Act. The Yale Law Journal76 (1967) pp. 677–717.

    Google Scholar 

  7. R. Gibrat: “Les Inegalités Economiques”, Paris: Libraire du Recueil Sirey, 1930.

    Google Scholar 

  8. P. E. Hart and S. J. Prais: “The Analysis of Business Concentration: A Statistical Approach”, The Journal of the Statistical Society119 (1956), pp. 150–181.

    Google Scholar 

  9. P. E. Hart: Studies in Profit, Business Saving and Investment in the United Kingdom, 1920–1962, London 1965.

  10. A. Horowitz and I. Horowitz: “Entropy, Markov Processes and Competition in the Brewing Industry”, The Journal of Industrial Economics16 (1968), pp. 196–211.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Huang: Statistical Mechanics, New York 1963.

  12. S. Hymer and P. Pashigan: “Firm Size and Rate of Growth”, The Journal of Political Economy70 (1962), pp. 556–569.

    Google Scholar 

  13. R. E. Murphy: Adaptive Processes in Economic Systems, New York 1965.

  14. B. Näslund: “Economic Size Distributions”, Research Report No. 14, Department of Business Administration, Stockholm, August 1968.

    Google Scholar 

  15. R. E. Quandt: “On the Size Distributions of Firms”, The American Economic Review56 (1966), pp. 416–432.

    Google Scholar 

  16. J. M. Samuels: Size and the Growth of Firms, The Review of Economic Studies32 (1965), pp. 105–112.

    Google Scholar 

  17. H. A. Simon: “On a Class of Shew Distribution Functions”, Biometrica42 (1955), pp. 145–164.

    Google Scholar 

  18. H. A. Simon and C. P. Bonini: The Size of Distribution of Business Firms, The American Economic Review48 (1958), pp. 607–617.

    Google Scholar 

  19. H. A. Simon and Y. Ijiri: “Business Firm Growth and Size”, The American Economic Review54 (1964), pp. 77–89.

    Google Scholar 

  20. A. Singh and G. Whittington: Growth, Profitability and Valuation, Cambridge 1968.

  21. J. Steindl: Random Processes and Growth of Firms, London 1965.

  22. H. Theil: Economics and Information Theory, Amsterdam 1967.

  23. F. Wedervang: Development of Population of Industrial Firms, Bergen 1965.

  24. N. Rashevsky;: Mathematical Biology of Social Behavior, Chicago 1951.

  25. J. S. Bain: Barriers to New Competition, Cambridge, Mass. 1956.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Näslund, B. Size distributions and the optimal size of firms. Zeitschr. f. Nationalökonomie 30, 271–282 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01289240

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01289240

Keywords

Navigation