All grown up? The fate after 15 years of a quarter of a million UK firms born in 1998

The theory of firm growth is in a rather unsatisfactory state. However, the analysis of large firm-level datasets which have become available in recent years allows us to begin building an evidence base which can, in turn, be used to underpin the development of more satisfactory theory. Here we study the 239 thousand UK private sector firms born in 1998 over their first 15 years of life. A first, and quite striking, finding is the extraordinary force of mortality. By age 15, 90% of the UK firms born in 1998 are dead, and, for those surviving to age 15, the hazard of death is still about 10% a year. The chance of death is related to the size and growth of firms in an interesting way. Whilst the hazard rate after 15 years is largely independent of size at birth, it is strongly affected by the current (age 14) size. In particular, firms with more than five employees are half as likely to die in the next year as firms with less than five employees. A second important finding is that most firms, even those which survive to age 15, do not grow very much. By age 15 more than half the 26,000 survivors still have less than five jobs. In other words, the growth paths – what we call the ‘growth trajectories’ – of most of the 26,000 survivors are pretty flat. However, of the firms that do grow, firms born smaller grow faster than those born larger. Another striking finding is that growth is heavily concentrated in the first five years. Whilst growth does continue, even up to age 15, each year after age five it involves only a relatively small proportion of firms. Finally, there are two groups of survivors which contribute importantly to job creation. Some are those born relatively large (with more than 20 jobs) although their growth rate is quite modest. More striking though, is a very small group of firms born very small with less than five jobs (about 5% of all survivors) which contribute a substantial proportion (more than one third) of the jobs added to the cohort total by age 15.     

Health care purchasing alliances--a Michigan multiemployer trust funds' approach

A group of multiemployer trust funds in Michigan has formed a coalition that eventually will offer its members an integrated managed health care program. As the first step toward this goal, the coalition recently implemented a managed pharmaceutical program.     

DETERMINING WHETHER DUMPED OR SUBSIDIZED IMPORTS INJURE DOMESTIC INDUSTRIES: INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION APPROACH

This paper examines the "traditional approach" that the US. International Trade Commission (ITC) has used during recent years to decide whether dumped or subsidized imports cause material injury to a domestic industry. ITC decisions are perceived as not explaining clearly why the conclusions reached follow from the facts presented. Using a survey of recent ITC decisions, the authors attempt to discover the assumptions and methods of analysis lying behind traditional analysis so that readers may more fully understand ITC opinions. The authors argue that the major components of the traditional approach are special applications of ordinary demand-supply analysis.