Corporate growth convergence in Europe*

It is widely believed that the implementation of the SingleMarket Programme in 1992 has induced a transformation in industrialstructures across Europe. Some people believe that it has drivenEurope towards a common industrial structure. However, usinga newly available database covering nearly every firm above100 employees in 14 European countries over the time period1994 to 1998, the hypothesis of convergence in corporate sizeswithin industries is unambiguously rejected by the data. A Gibratprocess best describes the growth of very large and mature firms,but smaller and younger firms depart from this prediction. Pre-post1992 comparisons using another database for larger listed firmsreveal that the speed of convergence actually decreased post-1992.