Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
Using panel data on the publicly traded firms in the U.S. manufacturing sector in the recent past, the author finds that most of the change in employment at the firm level in any given year is permanent, that year-to-year growth rates are largely uncorrelated over time or with prior characteristics of the firm, and that there is almost no measurement error. Gibrat's Law is weakly rejected for the smaller firms in the sample and accepted for the larger firms. This find remains when the author controls for the effect of selection (attrition) on estimates obtained from this sample. Copyright 1987 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.