An analysis of the size distribution of Italian firms by age

In this paper we analyze the size distribution of Italian firms by age. In other words, we want to establish whether the way that the size of firms is distributed varies as firms become old. As a proxy of size we use capital. In [L.M.B. Cabral, J. Mata, On the evolution of the firm size distribution: Facts and theory, American Economic Review 93 (2003) 1075–1090], the authors study the distribution of Portuguese firms and they find out that, while the size distribution of all firms is fairly stable over time, the distributions of firms by age groups are appreciably different. In particular, as the age of the firms increases, their size distribution on the log scale shifts to the right, the left tails becomes thinner and the right tail thicker, with a clear decrease of the skewness. In this paper, we perform a similar analysis with Italian firms using the CEBI database, also considering firms’ growth rates. Although there are several papers dealing with Italian firms and their size distribution, to our knowledge a similar study concerning size and age has not been performed yet for Italy, especially with such a big panel.