Many studies have established that a small number of firms, known as
fast-growth firms or Gazelles, create most of the new jobs. In spite of the importance of
this topic from a policy-point of view, most of those studies are descriptive and limited
to a comparison of the characteristics of the high-growth group with respect to a
control group of firms. This paper, on the other hand, performs a multivariate analysis
of the determinants of the fast growth of Spanish firms controlling for the possible
endogeneity of some variables. We use for that purpose a firm-level database with
information for about 200,000 Spanish firms per year between 1996 and 2003. We find
that being a start-up increases the probability of fast growth by more than 30pp,
conditioned on having survived over the period. Firms with initial higher relative wages
and debt ratio, up to a certain point, also experience higher chances of fast growth.
Hence, as it was established elsewhere, better access to finance and to human capital
are key to increase the number and growth of Gazelles. We also find that high-growth
firm sustain their expansion with relatively more debt and fixed-term contracts than the
rest of the firms in the sample.
Real Time Impact Factor:
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Author Name: PALOMA LOPEZ-GARCIA, SERGIO PUENTE
URL: View PDF
Keywords: High-growth firms; Gazelles; Probit analysis; Firm-level data
ISSN: 1224-8738
EISSN: 2065-9636
EOI/DOI:
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