Demand Fluctuations and Firm Heterogeneity
利用1978-1988年美国163个四位数制造业数据，发现市场份额与销售波动负相关，说明大企业和小企业各有优势：大企业静态效率高，小企业灵活应对需求变化。
This paper reports evidence supporting the hypothesis that production flexibility is one of the forces that explain differences in the distribution of firm sizes across industries. Using a data set composed of annual observations on 163 four-digit manufacturing industries over the period 1978-1988, we find a negative relationship between market share and sales variability. This empirical result suggests that large and small firms each have their own efficiency niches. While large firms enjoy the advantage of static production efficiency, the flexible production technologies of small firms enable them to respond better to changing demand conditions.