Multi‐plant firms and the heavy tail of firm size distribution
研究发现多工厂企业的工厂规模分布比单工厂企业更重尾，表明选择效应（而非简单加总）是解释企业规模分布重尾的主要原因，且多工厂身份比出口身份更重要。
Abstract The right tail of the firm size distribution has a heavy tail. The origin of this phenomenon, especially the specific characteristics of firms driving this pattern, remain a subject of extensive debate. Previous work has shown that plant size distribution has thinner tails than firm size distribution, indicating the role of multi‐plant firms. However, we do not know whether this phenomenon is simply a mechanical effect arising from aggregation across multiple plants or whether the plants of multi‐plant firms are different from those of single‐plant firms. Using novel data with plant‐to‐firm mapping, we document that plants of multi‐plant firms are more heavy‐tailed than single‐plant firms, indicating the dominance of the selection effect at the intensive margin. Extensive margin via aggregation of sales at the firm level plays a less crucial role than the selection effect. Importantly, single‐plant exporters have a thinner tail than multi‐plant non‐exporters, suggesting a more dominant role of multi‐plant identity than export identity in explaining heavy tails.