Replication code for: How to Construct Nationally Representative Firm Level Data from the Orbis Global Database: New Facts on SMEs and Aggregate Implications for Industry Concentration

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan, University of Maryland; Bent Sorensen; Carolina Villegas-Sanchez, ESADE Business School; Vadym Volosovych , Erasmus University Rotterdam; Sevcan Yesiltas, Koc University

Version: View help for Version V1

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AEJMacro-2022-0036_Replication_June2023			06/26/2023 01:39:PM
AEJMacro-2022-0036_Readme_June2023.pdf	application/pdf	362.5 KB	06/26/2023 09:07:AM

Project Citation:

Kalemli-Ozcan, Sebnem, Sorensen, Bent, Villegas-Sanchez, Carolina, Volosovych , Vadym, and Yesiltas, Sevcan. Replication code for: How to Construct Nationally Representative Firm Level Data from the Orbis Global Database: New Facts on SMEs and Aggregate Implications for Industry Concentration. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2024. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2024-02-28. https://doi.org/10.3886/E187541V1

Project Description

Summary: We construct nationally representative firm-level longitudinal data for European countries using financial statements from the Orbis database. We validate our data by comparing its coverage and firm size distribution to official statistics. We showcase two applications to show the importance of firm representativeness in understanding macroeconomic outcomes. First, we show that small-and-medium-sized firms (SMEs) account for a large share of aggregate economic activity. Second, we document that firm representativeness is important for calculating industry concentration trends over time as the share of economic activity accounted by top firms in an industry changes with the firm samples used.

Scope of Project

JEL Classification:
      E00 Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics: General
      F00 International Economics: General
      O10 Economic Development: General

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V1 [2024-02-28]

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