{
  "id": "cond-mat/0212186",
  "version": "v1",
  "published": "2002-12-09T15:02:04.000Z",
  "updated": "2002-12-09T15:02:04.000Z",
  "title": "Power Law Distribution of the Frequency of Demises of U.S Firms",
  "authors": [
    "William Cook",
    "Paul Ormerod"
  ],
  "comment": "8 pages, 2 figures",
  "doi": "10.1016/S0378-4371(02)01955-6",
  "categories": [
    "cond-mat.stat-mech",
    "q-fin.GN"
  ],
  "abstract": "Both theoretical and applied economics have a great deal to say about many aspects of the firm, but the literature on the extinctions, or demises, of firms is very sparse. We use a publicly available data base covering some 6 million firms in the US and show that the underlying statistical distribution which characterises the frequency of firm demises - the disappearances of firms as autonomous entities - is closely approximated by a power law. The exponent of the power law is, intriguingly, close to that reported in the literature on the extinction of biological species.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v1",
      "updated": "2002-12-09T15:02:04.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "keywords": [
      "power law distribution",
      "literature",
      "extinction",
      "million firms",
      "firm demises"
    ],
    "tags": [
      "journal article"
    ],
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 8,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable"
    }
  }
}