Firms are constrained in growing knowledge capital due to frictions on the transfer of firm-specific knowledge (such as the process of recruiting and training skilled labor). Constrained firms must therefore forgo some positive-NPV projects during their growth. I embed micro-founded knowledge constraints in a q-theory model of a firm with two capital goods, structurally estimate the model, and ...

This paper presents a simple model of search and matching between consumers and firms. The firm size distribution has a Pareto-like right tail if the population of consumers grows at a positive rate and the mean rate at which incumbent firms gain customers is also positive. This happens in equilibrium when entry is sufficiently costly. As entry costs grow without bound, the size distribution ap...

This paper examines the time structure of the effects of R&D activities on firm growth. The main questions are whether R&D activities come together with firms’ growth in the subsequent periods and how this relationship depends on other characteristics of the firms, such as size and industry. In addition, we study the relationship between R&D effects and the autocorrelation dynamics of firm grow...

One of the most interesting issues in economics is the study of industrial dynamics and evolution. Firm size distributions are central when analyzing market structures. The intimate relationship between the firm growth process and the emanating market structures demands attention to firm size distributions and firm growth rate distributions. The stochastic firm growth approach builds on the fir...