1. Finance and Development: The Unfinished Agenda
Discussion of “What Determines Entrepreneurial Outcomes in Emerging Markets? Role of Initial Conditions”
Miriam Bruhn
Finance and Development: The Unfinished Agenda
November 2, 2016

2. Why this this not reflected in the employment growth results?
Figure 1 shows a big jump in employment for large firms between age 1 and 2
Much bigger jump than for small firms
Why this this not reflected in the employment growth results?

3. Is India representative of other countries?
Growth before age 8 looks much higher than in Hsieh and Klenow (QJE 2014)
What drives this difference?
Is India representative of other countries?

4. Small entrants have 16 employees at age 1 and about 21 at age 2
5.4/16 = 31% increase
Large entrants have 67 employees at age 1 and about 98 at age 2
31/67 = 46% increase
Both of these numbers are large increases in one year!
Selection effects, i.e. do the smallest firms go out of business?

5. In the US, about 20% of firms go out of business between age 1 and 2
Average number of employees is 7.5 at age 1 and 9.4 at age 2
1.9/7.5 = 25% increase

6. Distribution tests
Compare distribution at age 2 to distribution at age 8
No evidence that distribution at age 8 is truncated at lower end
Distribution at age 8 is more dilated  Is this consistent with no difference in growth rates for small and large firms?
Do results change if comparing distributions at age 1 and age 8?
Frequency
Number of employees

7. Findings on financial development
Surprising that financial development does not matter for growth, only for initial size
Shouldn’t availability of finance allow firms to make more investments, which would lead to growth?
In financially developed states, entrants are smaller, but also more numerous (as a % of total firms)
What does this finding mean for economic development?
Suggests that finance relaxes constraints, but at the same time we don’t see an increase in small firms’ growth rates…
What is the optimal firm size?